Curriculum & Courses

This is a 14-week course.

The insurance business is an outward-facing business built around selling products to individual and business consumers. Therefore, insurance service providers, like all sophisticated consumer-driven businesses, must carefully and constantly assess their markets and strategies to remain relevant in a highly competitive environment. Insurance providers operate in a highly competitive environment that rewards discipline as well as innovation. Why discipline? The providers are selling a promise to pay a claim sometime in the future...they need to be there to pay!

With attention to all lines of the insurance business (P&C, Life, Health), the course will address developing, pricing and selling a new or revised product. Imagine if you will the actuarial challenge of pricing a life insurance product for which costs are determined only after all claims have been paid – something that will occur many, many years after the policy was sold. The course will also explore how providers are expanding beyond traditional products into related services and how technology is increasing innovation around product design and marketing.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the main types of general, life, and health insurance products and the purposes for which they may be used.

• Infer the similarities, differences and underlying drivers in markets for general, life, and health insurance products.

• Identify factors driving market and/or product opportunities and reasons for failure/poor performance.

• Examine the theory and practice of obtaining/negotiating sustainable actuarial pricing in a dynamic marketplace.

• Define principal distribution channels and their challenges, including the impact of technology.

• Articulate a proposal to develop a new or existing product to capture a current or emerging market opportunity.

This is a 7-week course.

The course is designed to provide students with a rigorous combination of theory and practice in the fundamental principles of finance for insurance. Students will have the opportunity to become familiar with many of the core principles and concepts commonly applied in the insurance field, including the use of reinsurance, expense management, and capital deployment, as tools for organizations to accomplish a variety of “core” and “strategic” corporate goals such as reaching revenue and profitability targets, managing capital, entering or exiting new lines of business, buying or selling entire companies, and expanding into or exiting from entire geographic areas. The course will also provide a detailed examination of financial and investment concepts to maximize return on assets and equity drawing from practical and theoretical frameworks in capital management. Students will identify and reinforce work-related practices, such as analyzing financial statements, the application of time value of money concepts, asset valuation on a discounted cash flow (DCF) basis, cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and the quantification of the multifaceted relationship between risk and return in financial markets.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Grasp basic concepts of finance and applicability in the insurance industry

• Understand the principal roles and functions of financial markets and institutions.

• Use financial statements and ratio analysis to evaluate financial performance.

• Explore the principal time value of money (TVM) concepts used in financial analysis.

• Understand and apply capital management principles and techniques.

• Assess and understand the role of reinsurance in the financial system, the concept of risk transfer, and the impact and “side-effects” of different structures/forms of reinsurance.

• Become familiar with basic concepts and differences in accounting methodologies as they impact insurance organizational financial performance.

• Analyze investment situations and define the appropriate mechanisms for addressing risk both for insurance function and investment function.

• Progression from insurance company to a financial services company.

• Surety (Performance bonding, payment bonding, etc) and its role as a financial product

This is a 7-week course.

Students in this course will learn specific steps and processes in claims management. The course extends the learning by providing information about the operational and regulatory environment in which claims are processed and managed. Students will learn how claims are adjudicated in the insurance industry, as well as obtain exposure in compliance and legal requirements for insurance organizations.  The course will review and evaluate case studies of all types of insurance and reinsurance, while also illustrating how insurance regulations and compliance requirements have a significant impact on the products sold and insurance carrier behavior in risk.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Explain how the claims function integrates with corporate strategy and influences corporate identity

• Analyze situations for factors that influence processes used to adjudicate claims and make business decisions on future product offerings

• Describe how the claim management function integrates with other departments/corporations that may have the final decision over claims processing (i.e., interaction with multiple reinsurers)

• Describe how the claims management process will create income for an organization through claims recovery reserve reductions and run out management consulting

• Define how subrogation and coordination of benefits become critical functions in the claims management process

• Evaluate the use of third parties such as private investigators, auditors, and outside law firms in the claims adjudication process

• Define how regulation (e.g., HIPAA Privacy Laws and regulation) impact the claims management operations of a business

• Understand how technology and analytics impact claims management

This is a 14-week course.

What happens behind the scenes in operations is of the utmost importance to the overall infrastructure of an insurance company. Operations cover everything from planning to directing to controlling critical elements to avoid such pitfalls as poor oversight and poor risk management, inaccurate reporting, regulatory scrutiny, revocation of licenses, claims disputes, fines and penalties. The high level of responsibility operations has to its stakeholders, insureds, regulators, management, and shareholders have rightfully earned the label of the “backbone of the company”. Learn how operational support functions work within the overall process to transform information/data into desired services that create and deliver value to both internal and external customers, and the integral role it plays within the regulatory and compliance environment.

Students will be able to:

• Explain the important role operations plays within the business and how it manages day-to-day activities

• Coordinate key players to maintain, monitor and satisfy regulatory requirements

• Discuss the value of having robust systems (including AI) that capture and efficiently manage workflow 

• Develop sound operational business practices that not only focus on performance but controls company costs 

• Guide the company’s operating capabilities to exceed customer satisfaction and retention, and company goals

• Translate laws and regulations into requirements to monitor and enforce them

This is a 7-week course.

The insurance industry was built on the idea that the two most important challenges facing individuals and companies every day are opportunity and risk.  The successful insurance leader must have the ability to foresee and proactively address a global industry ecosystem of regulated and interdependent markets, political regimes, competitors, supply chains, customers, imperfect data, cyber environments and communications technologies that make modeling risk in the rapidity of change and possible disruption of core business activities a daily challenge. The future of the insurance industry holds unseen risk, and at the same time holds extraordinary opportunities for talented leaders.

The course will also integrate and discuss the impact of ethical and conduct risk and the importance each plays in the business of an insurance company as well as the standards and conduct of the insurance professionals who stand at the front lines of fraud prevention and fair dealing.  Students will study the actual cases and events that drove the current ethical frameworks set by regulators to detect and prevent common ethical violations within the insurance industry such as fraud and other criminal activity, misrepresentations amongst stakeholders, including in sales, agency and distribution sectors, cyber-risk, money laundering, and economic and trade sanction violations.

This course will transform your understanding of how law and regulation work together to maximize exciting and innovative ways to cover an ever-expanding world of interrelated markets and developing risk horizons.   

After completing this course, students will:

• Develop a knowledge base of legal and regulatory structures that as insurance thought leaders they will build on as they address new and sometimes unknown risks presented by rapidly developing technologies, geography and environmental impact, geopolitical, communication and payment systems evolution. 

• Understand how each transformative development brings important considerations for leaders in corporate structures, product development and regulatory approval, sales and distribution, and supervision. 

• Create business norms for corporate growth (organic and through M&A), market entry and compliance with the information and data security requirements. 

• Reflect on how law, regulation and risk management fit together to create a synergism to drive success. 

This is a 7-week course.

Insurance underwriting represents both the science and the art of insurance. It is the quintessential insurance function, and its impact is felt directly on both the top line and the bottom line of an insurer’s financial statements. The underwriting function’s core role is to accept insurance risks that, in the aggregate, align with management’s expectations for (i) the duration of premium and claim payments (ii) the nature and complexity of the resulting liability portfolio, and (iii) profit. The underwriter must balance these expectations with insurance market realities, guarding against unplanned decreases in premium revenue (the topline) in the pursuit of profitable business (the bottom line) and/or decreases in profit in pursuit of topline revenue growth. Underpinned by risk management, mathematics, data analytics, and actuarial science, underwriting also incorporates experience, relationships, and human intuition into the calculus of evaluating new or renewed business opportunities, and in managing portfolios of insurance liabilities. 

This course will cover the fundamentals of underwriting the standard lines of insurance including life, health, accident, annuity, property, and casualty. Students will delve into the impact of underwriting on the insurance business and will learn to tie underwriting techniques to organizational profitability and success. The intimate relationship between day-to-day transactional underwriting decisions, strategic management of liability portfolios, and insurance company Enterprise Risk Management will serve as a fundamental underpinning of the course. 

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Evaluate common risk exposures using the standard underwriting methods and models and the impact of innovations such as predictive scoring and analytics on these methods.

• Describe the loss exposures and the underwriting considerations for specific insurance types and settings.

• Explain the relationship between underwriting and pricing of insurance products

• Apply underwriting techniques by defining plan designs to mitigate the specific risk present in a given insurance case (e.g., exclusions, deductibles, waiting periods, maximum limits and sub-limits, etc.).

• Illustrate how market conditions, regulatory and legal requirements, and environmental events (natural catastrophes) influence underwriting decisions.

• Explain and illustrate how underwriting guidelines, authorities, and manuals guide underwriting activities to assist in the construction, management, and maintenance of insurance liability portfolios.

• Describe how corporate capital requirements, profitability, investments, and reinsurance risk management are incorporated into the underwriting and rate development process.

This is a 12-week course.

Data has always played an important role in the insurance industry. As students will learn throughout the Insurance Management curriculum, the availability of vast amounts of data as a result of advances in technology has, and will continue to have, an extensive impact on key functions within an insurance business. While data management and decision-making in the insurance industry are made more complex by vast amounts of data about the organization, its customers, and the environment in which it operates, the strategic use of data is changing the way business is being done today and how it will be done tomorrow. 

This course will examine the role of data in each affected corporate function, from the perspective of commercial property & casualty, life, accident & health, and personal lines of business. The future of insurance will be illustrated by case studies (e.g. Lemonade, Oscar) on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning at the core of new insurance offerings, and the relevance of technology advancements and its impact on all aspects of the insurance business. Students will also learn how data is converted into information, knowledge, and finally into insights and business actions. 

After completing this course, students will be able to: 

• Understand and re-imagine the business of insurance through data analytics 

• Identify sources of data and explain its use within an organization

• Explain the relationship between an organization’s business strategy and its technology strategy 

• Use data and analytics to drive innovation throughout an organization 

This is a 12-week course.

The insurance industry is one of the oldest in the world because at its core is the ability to diversify and grow by innovation and adapt to change. Change begets opportunity: the globalization of commercial risk from expanding multinational businesses made possible by technology, demographic shifts due to aging, or increasingly extreme climate fluctuations. The advantage of being first to market with new or enhanced products or services for an underserved or new territory, a niche market, or potential risk drives the dedication of corporate resources to development. As a result, the industry now offers cyber insurance, utilizes insurtech business options, and increases profitability through data science. An objective of this course is to envision the next industry disruptor.  

Successful insurance professionals provide not only risk solutions for obvious exposures but create insurance products and services that will anticipate the needs of insureds. Insurance is not only the backstop to a problem, but it is also a facilitator of progress.  It enables insureds to buy homes, drive cars, build infrastructure projects, and expand businesses by spreading risk. This course will focus on current risk and insurance trends that give rise to opportunity for product and service development and engage students in the due diligence necessary to translate ideas into viable solutions.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Apply the knowledge gained from the Program’s coursework to the product and service development process.

• Understand and integrate the role and the interests of each functional unit of an insurance enterprise in the development process.

• Lead the analysis and evaluation of the merits of a proposed product or service, and provide suggestions for improvement.

• Approach information and situations with a critical eye to identify new opportunities and formulate solutions.

This is a 14-week course.

Students successfully completing this course will have an understanding of how insurance companies utilize risk management practices to accomplish various “operational” and “strategic” goals. They will understand how the risks facing an Insurance company are: identified, measured, mitigated, monitored and reported.  They will learn the roles of different internal and external stakeholders play in implementing and subsequently monitoring risk management policies. They will also understand the link between aggregate risk exposure and capital adequacy. Students will learn how to comply with existing regulations, as well as how to monitor and analyze the potential impact of emerging risks.  

After completing this course, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The Fundamentals of Risk Management: Risk Measurement, Capital Allocation, and Risk-Adjusted Rates of Return

• Financial Instruments and their associated risks and use.

• Risk Management best practices: Three Lines of Defense, Risk appetite statements, and Risk monitoring and reporting.

• Insurance company risks: Underwriting Risk, Market Risk, Credit Risk, Liquidity Risk, Longevity Risk, Natural Risks (Hurricane, Earthquake, Flood, Winter Storm, Climate change) and Operational Risks (Cyber, Vendor, breakdown of people, processes or systems).

• The mechanisms that Insurance Companies utilize to manage their Risk Exposures including reinsurance, diversification, and capital accumulation. 

• Lessons learned from historical risk management failures in the insurance Industry

This is a 14-week course.

The MPS in insurance management will culminate with an applied research project where students will ideate and develop solutions for real-world business challenges, product strategies, micro or macro transformations or an area of interest in close consultation with faculty. The applied research project will be an action-oriented research project that requires students to leverage their prior coursework, propose a research question, engage in the field, and collect and analyze quantitative and/or qualitative data to design their projects. While students will be expected to complete this course in the final semester of the program, important milestones will be interspersed throughout the curriculum to help students plan and evolve an applied research idea to completion. This course will be aimed at consolidating and enhancing students’ understanding of the real-world constraints under which insurance professionals operate. Through the design and presentation of the project students will sharpen their analytical and communication skills, by leveraging prior knowledge and presenting their findings and recommendations to industry leaders.

After completing this course, students will have learned how to: 

• Influence and make decisions that demonstrate their understanding of insurance organizations and business priorities

• Address the impact of their research and recommendations on affected organizational units and stakeholders

• Develop strategies for implementing product or service changes

• Communicate effectively with people at all levels of the organization