Life Contingencies

This subject is not offered in 2014.

Estimated total time commitment of 120 hours per semester

Students should be competent in the use of Excel.

None

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements for this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject applies previous studies in the areas of financial mathematics, survival modelling, stochastic processes and graduation to life insurance and superannuation products. Specifically, the subject considers pricing and reserving for life insurance policies issued to single lives or to couples. Topics such as disability income insurance, joint-life products and superannuation are considered under a multiple state model framework.

On successful completion of this subject a student should be able to:

• Define simple assurance and annuity contracts, and develop formulae for the means and variances of the present values of the payments under these contracts, assuming constant deterministic interest;
• Describe practical methods of evaluating expected values and variances of the simple insurance contracts;
• Describe and calculate, using ultimate or select mortality, net premiums and net premium provisions of simple insurance contracts;
• Describe the calculation, using ultimate or select mortality, of net premiums and net premium provisions for increasing and decreasing benefits and annuities;
• Describe the calculation of gross premiums and provisions of assurance and annuity contracts;
• Define and use straightforward functions involving two lives;
• Describe methods which can be used to model cashflows contingent upon competing risks;
• Describe the technique of discounted emerging costs, for use in pricing, reserving, and assessing profitability;
• Apply knowledge of financial mathematics, survival modelling, stochastic processes and graduation to problems in life insurance.
• Describe the principal forms of heterogeneity within a population and the ways in which selection can occur.

• An assignment of up to 1,000 words (10%)
• One hour mid-semester test (20%)
• Two hour end of semester exam (70%)

You will be advised of prescribed texts by your lecturer.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

High level of development:

• Written communication;
• Problem solving;
• Statistical reasoning;
• Application of theory to practice;
• Synthesis of data and other information.