Risk Management & Insurance Major and Minor

The risk management and insurance (RMI) program emphasizes effective teaching and student involvement in learning. Highly regarded scholars teach courses sharing professional experiences and academic research with their students.

Approximately one-half of the 120 semester hours required for the undergraduate degree in business is mainly earned during the first two years of study and are in the liberal arts, sciences, humanities and fine arts.

Specialization in the RMI area occurs in the junior and senior years with courses in life and health, property, liability, risk management, financial planning, insurance company operations and insurance law. Undergraduates who major in RMI are required to complete 24 semester hours of risk management and insurance and a student pursuing a minor needs 12 semester hours of RMI courses.

It is appealing for many students to double major in RMI with a complementary second major of finance, marketing, or business administration for example or also to combine their interests with such disciplines as actuarial science, health sciences, loss control, accounting, management, law, investments, applied computer science or economics.

Within the RMI program, students may pursue Risk Management & Insurance - General, an-depth study of risk management and insurance combined with the general business core curriculum, or Risk Management & Insurance - Business Information Systems, a combination of a general risk management and insurance background with skills in computer programming, systems analysis, and systems design.

Risk Management & Insurance Courses

Suggested Electives

• FIL 246: Financial Statement Analysis
• FIL 342: Estate Planning
• FIL 345: Retirement Planning & Employee Benefits
• FIL 382.05: Analysis of Insurance Companies 
• MKT 234: Personal Selling & Relationship Marketing
• MQM 223: Introduction to Small Business
• MQM 224: Entrepreneurship I

Take a quick look at the Insurance and Finance double major course overlap if you are considering a career in the Insurance or Finance industry.

Actuarial Science Curriculum

An actuarial science major is offered through the Department of Mathematics. The major is designed to prepare actuaries for work in the insurance industry or as consultants dealing with the risk of potential financial losses. Graduates of the program are prepared for an actuarial career in either the property and casualty field or the life and health field.

The curriculum is balanced to provide the content for some professional exams conducted by the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries. In addition to traditional mathematics and statistics courses that prepare students for early actuarial exams, the actuarial curriculum includes the following:

• Theory of Interest
• The Analysis of Time Series
• Introduction to Life Contingencies
• Credibility Theory and Loss Distributions
• Topics in Actuarial Science

The major also requires an accounting course, a sequence in micro- and macroeconomics, "Legal Environment of Business," and "Introduction to Risk and Insurance." Students have an opportunity to complete a full-time, paid internship during their senior years.

Being an actuarial science major at Illinois State

For more information, view the Actuarial Science website.

Resources

• Insurance Plan of Study
• Insurance Business Information Systems Sequence Plan of Study
• Insurance Program Goals and Indicators
• Insurance Advisor, Kathy Sims