FINA 4354: RISK MANAGEMENT & INSURANCE

This course offers a comprehensive overview and a broad prospective of the principles of Risk Management and Insurance. While emphasizing traditional risk management and insurance, this course introduces other types of risk management and stresses that professionals may use the same general framework to manage all types of risk. Students are provided a framework for (a) making risk management and insurance decisions to increase business value, (b) understanding insurance contracts and the insurance industry’s institutional features, and (c) understanding the effects of and the rationale for public policies that affect risk. This course is required for the RMI certificate and is most beneficial for students to complete early in the track.

FINA 4355: INTERNATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT

This course addresses the challenges involved in managing risk in the international arena. The importance of studying global risk management continues to grow as companies transact more of their business in both domestic and foreign markets. From sourcing components and establishing manufacturing operations outside of the home country to selling overseas, companies need trained employees able to understand and manage international risk.

Students will learn techniques needed to analyze and respond to global risks, learn to work in small groups on risk scenarios, and learn about the international insurance marketplace. Students will gain knowledge and skills that will prepare them for work in any company with international activity.

FINA 4357: COMMERCIAL LIABILITY INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT

This course examines the major types of insurable lawsuits an organization might encounter, how insurance can cover those lawsuits, and how the business can conduct operations to lessen the chances of litigation. Included in this course are teaching modules on product liability, director and officers’ liability, pollution liability, and cyber-risk and cases on the major principals involved. This course also covers future loss prediction estimates and the analysis of “self-insurance” and high deductible applications. This course concludes with a group presentation that requires students to justify which insurance policies and particular features an organization should purchase. This course is required for the RMI certificate.

FINA 4358: COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

This course examines the insurance coverage and practices that successful businesses use to protect their physical and financial assets. Students will study business’ and organizations’ (such as governmental or nonprofit entities) methods for controlling the effects of property losses, which includes any loss that a person or organization sustains as a result of the damaging destruction, taking or loss of use of property in which that person has a financial interest. The course examines all forms of commercial property insurance to include business interruption theory and practice. Special projects are included to address: how businesses limit their various exposures to insurable loss, how they estimate the amount of business interruption insurance needed, how they allocate premium to subordinate divisions within their organizations, and the use of “Captive” insurance programs. The course concludes with group presentations placing students in the role of Risk Manager for a large company and requiring them to justify various risk management expenditures to the CFO. This course is required for the RMI certificate.

FINA 4359: ENERGY RISK CASE STUDY

This seminar course builds upon presentations on energy companies’ management of risks by some of the most experienced risk managers and insurance underwriters in the energy industry (previous presenter companies include Conoco-Phillips, Anadarko, Halliburton, and Willis Insurance Services). Students will actively examine energy risk identification and the solution selection for risk management. The course is open to both graduate and undergraduate students, who will form teams to prepare oral presentations and term papers for designated guest lectures.

FINA 4397: ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT

Participants in the course will learn how Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is used across all departments in companies to management risk including but not limited to operations, treasury, human resources, and technology risks. We will cover ERM frameworks and processes, risk oversight and reporting, governance, and compliance.

Students will explore real world examples and will learn techniques needed to identify, analyze and respond to a variety of risks, both internal and external to companies. Participants will work in small groups on ERM projects and make class presentations. Students will gain knowledge and skills that will help prepare them for work in any company and enable them to stand out from their colleagues with an enhanced ability to analyze and treat risks.

FINA 4329: LIFE INSURANCE

Though human life possesses many irreplaceable and immeasurable values, Life Insurance focuses on the economic value of a human life derived from its earning capacity. This course provides a basic view of these values and a foundation for the study of more specialized aspects of life insurance. Included is an examination of the various types of life insurance programs as well as the underwriting considerations involved in setting rates and other related financial parameters.

FINA 4397: RISK FINANCING

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the techniques, often including risk retention and risk transfer, that risk management professionals use to finance or pay for the negative consequences of risk events. The first part of the course provides a broad overview of risk financing as one potential risk treatment technique and explains how organizations should examine risk financing alternatives in light of all its risks, including both pure and speculative risks. Techniques for estimation losses arising from hazard (insurable) risk are examined in detail. The middle part of the course concentrates on alternative risk financing techniques for hazard risk, including insurance, self-insurance, retrospective rating, reinsurance, captives and contractual risk transfer. The mechanics, advantages, and disadvantages of each technique are discussed in detailed. The last part of the course covers financial risks and capital markets. Various methods of transferring financial risk and hazard risk to the financial markets are discussed. The course concludes with a discussion of how to allocate the cost of hazard risks associated to various divisions within an organization.

This course is highly interactive. Students must come to class prepared to discuss real-world applications of the principles and techniques contained within the text. At the end of the course, students will participate in a group exercise which is designed to replicate the risk financing decisions and situations facing a modern day risk manager to a mid-size oil and gas exploration company.

FINA 4397: RISK ASSESSMENT

This course examines the various methods risk managers use to determine which exposure to loss are most threatening to their businesses. The course provides an in-depth overview of risk management including a description of what risk management is, how risk management professionals design programs to address their organizations loss exposures, and what the risk management process involves. The course closely examines the loss exposure categories of property loss, liability lawsuits, personnel injury and loss of net income. The course additionally addresses the quantitative toll risk managers use to access the significance of a given loss exposure and then properly prioritize that exposure within the organization’s overall risk management program.