The Actuarial profession appeals to many with excellent quantitative skills who aspire to "make financial sense of the future." However the road to qualification as an Actuary through the Institute or Faculty of Actuaries in the UK (or the Society of Actuaries or Casualty Actuary Society in the United States) is not an easy one, and a series of very challenging exams must be passed to qualify as a Fellow Actuary. These exams test many skills, and in particular demand a good knowledge of probability and statistics. The main areas of work for actuaries are traditionally life assurance, actuarial consultancy, general insurance, and investment. Although statistical skills are required in all of these areas, they are particularly important in general insurance. In this paper we discuss the basic tools and techniques in probability and statistics that are essential for an actuary who intends to work in general insurance.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education