The CAS is excited to introduce two new courses to its interactive online course library. The Statistics for Reserve Variability series will familiarize students with common probability distributions and statistics, as well as to the basics of generating random variables for simulation and bootstrapping. Interactive online courses are self-study training lessons that feature quizzes, case studies, Excel exercises and knowledge tests.
The first course, “Introduction to Statistics and Notation,” is a primer on statistics and the methods used to model reserve variability. The second course, “Introduction to Modeling Statistics,” teaches students common probability distributions and statistics as well as the basics of generating random variables for simulation and bootstrapping. Designed with the principles of adult learning, each course is targeted to an actuary or insurance professional with one or more years of experience. Courses are approximately 90 minutes long, not including extra reading and exercises, and conclude with an end-of-session test.
The Experts
Authors of the course, Louise Francis and Mark R. Shapland, are longtime CAS Fellows with vast experience in various aspects of reserve variability.
Francis is the consulting principal and founder of Francis Analytics and Actuarial Data Mining, Inc. where she leads reserving, pricing, predictive modeling, simulation, and related actuarial projects and engagements.
Shapland is a senior consultant with the Dubai office of Milliman and was previously the lead casualty actuary on the PCIS (software development) team. He joined the firm in 2003, after 24 years of experience at insurance companies and other consulting firms.
Anticipated Launch
The CAS plans to launch “Introduction to Statistics and Notation,” by the end of summer 2015. “Introduction to Modeling Statistics” will soon follow in fall 2015.
For more information, please visit http://www.casact.org/education/interactive/index.cfm?fa=reserve_variability or email the author at npotter@casact.org.
