---
title: Actuarial Science
description: Actuaries price risk for insurers and pensions. You will learn the probability and financial mathematics behind the actuarial exams, life and non-life models, and the exam path itself.
category: finance-economics
subcategory: corporate-finance
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/actuarial-science
---

# Actuarial Science

Actuaries price risk for insurers and pensions. You will learn the probability and financial mathematics behind the actuarial exams, life and non-life models, and the exam path itself.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 2 Websites

## Books

### 1. Loss Models: From Data to Decisions (Fifth Edition)

**Author:** Stuart A. Klugman, Harry H. Panjer, Gordon E. Willmot

The canonical short-term and non-life modelling text: severity and frequency distributions, aggregate loss models, coverage modifications, parametric and empirical estimation, model selection and credibility. Supplies most of the syllabus for the SOA's ASTAM exam and the CAS statistics exams.
Nothing else in non-life actuarial modelling has this standing - the notation and the aggregate-loss machinery in the SOA and CAS syllabi are this book's. Exam-name caveat: written against Exam C, which became STAM and is now ASTAM, so read it against the current ASTAM syllabus rather than assuming chapter alignment.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119523788?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** loss-models, aggregate-loss, credibility-theory, severity-distributions, astam, non-life-insurance

### 2. Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risks (Third Edition)

**Author:** David C. M. Dickson, Mary R. Hardy, Howard R. Waters

The reference text behind the SOA's long-term actuarial mathematics exams. Covers survival models, life insurances and annuities, premium calculation, policy values, multiple-state and multiple-decrement models, profit testing, and pension and embedded-value mathematics.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1108478085?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** life-contingencies, survival-models, life-insurance, annuities, ltam, pension-mathematics

### 3. Mathematical Interest Theory (Third Edition)

**Author:** Leslie Jane Federer Vaaler, Shinko Kojima Harper, James W. Daniel

Interest theory textbook written to the Exam FM syllabus: annuities, loan amortisation, bonds, yield rates, term structure, duration and immunisation. Includes BA II Plus calculator keystrokes and several hundred exercises, many adapted from released exam questions. This is the mathematically serious treatment - proofs and derivations rather than formula sheets - while still exam-aligned, including the calculator work the SOA expects.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/147046568X?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** interest-theory, exam-fm, annuities, bond-valuation, duration-immunization, actuarial-exams

## Websites

### 1. Loss Data Analytics (Second Edition)

**Author:** Helene Cossette, Edward W. Frees, Brian Hartman, Tim Higgins (editors)

Creative Commons textbook written by an international group of actuaries and academics, covering frequency and severity modelling, aggregate losses, credibility, risk classification, ratemaking, loss reserving, bonus-malus and dependence, with runnable R code and quizzes.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://openacttexts.github.io/LDAVer2/index.html

**Tags:** loss-data-analytics, ratemaking, loss-reserving, credibility-theory, r-programming, non-life-insurance

### 2. Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA) Requirements

The Society of Actuaries' official map of the ASA credential: exams P, FM, FAM, SRM, PA, ATPA and ALTAM/ASTAM, plus VEE credits, the e-learning modules and the professionalism course, each linking to its current syllabus. The exam path is the first thing a newcomer needs and the thing most third-party content gets wrong, because the SOA restructured the preliminary sequence (MLC/LTAM and C/STAM were replaced by FAM plus ALTAM/ASTAM, and FAP was cut to five modules in 2025).

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-asa-req/

**Tags:** asa-credential, actuarial-exams, society-of-actuaries, exam-syllabus, actuarial-careers

---

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