SOA GIRRGeneral Insurance — Ratemaking & Reserving

Fellowship (FSA)

4 hours·10–12 written-answer questions·≈400 study hours

Syllabus learning objectives

Paraphrased from the SOA syllabus so the study-plan builder and practice sets track the topics you will actually be examined on. Weights are the official topic ranges.

Reserving: development, BF, Cape Cod, frequency-severity, diagnostics

45%

Estimate unpaid claim liabilities using development-triangle methods (chain ladder, BF, Cape Cod, frequency-severity).
Diagnose triangle distortions from changes in case reserve adequacy, claim department practice, or mix.
Select ultimate loss estimates by weighting and reconciling results from multiple methods.
Apply diagnostic tools (loss ratio, average severity, closure-rate triangles) to assess reserve adequacy.

Ratemaking: indications, trend, on-level, classification

45%

Adjust historical premium to current rate level using the parallelogram method and extension of exposures.
Select frequency and severity trend factors and project losses to the future policy period.
Calculate the overall rate level indication using loss ratio and pure premium methods.
Develop classification relativities using univariate and multivariate (GLM) rating techniques.

Reinsurance & individual risk rating basics

10%

Describe common proportional and excess-of-loss reinsurance structures used in general insurance.
Apply experience and schedule rating adjustments to individual risk premiums.
Compute retrospective premium under a basic retro rating plan.
Assess the effect of reinsurance on gross-to-net loss and premium relationships.

Lecture videos for this exam

Open the full video library →

Actuarial Reserving 1 | Development Method

Mancinelli's Math Lab · Loss Reserving

Reserve Calculation Basic Chain Ladder and Bornhuetter Ferguson Method

Pradnya Ambatipudi · Loss Reserving

Actuaries CT6 Run off Triangles Introduction

Pradnya Ambatipudi · Loss Reserving

Insurance Risk Pricing with GLM, GAM and XGBoost

Matthew Evans · Pricing & GLMs

Overview

GIRR is the SOA General Insurance track's core technical exam, analogous to CAS Exam 5 but with somewhat broader coverage of frequency–severity reserving and stochastic diagnostics. Based on the SOA's own study note by Friedland.

Duration: 4 hours
Questions: 10–12 written-answer questions
Style: Computer-based written answer
Credit: GI track FSA requirement

Syllabus map

Reserving: development, BF, Cape Cod, frequency-severity, diagnostics

45%

Loss Development Triangles: Construction and Age-to-Age Factors Reserving Methods: Chain Ladder, Bornhuetter–Ferguson, Benktander, and Cape Cod Reserving Diagnostics and the Berquist–Sherman Adjustment

Ratemaking: indications, trend, on-level, classification

45%

Ratemaking Fundamentals Workers' Compensation Ratemaking GLMs and Predictive Modeling in Pricing

Reinsurance & individual risk rating basics

10%

Reinsurance Structures and Pricing

Key formulas

See CAS Exam 5 formulas, plus:

Frequency–severity reserving $\;\widehat{Ult}_i=\hat N_i\times\hat S_i$ with counts and severities developed separately.

Berquist–Sherman case-adequacy adjustment: restate historical case reserves at the current average-case level using a severity trend $\tau$ : $\;\text{adj}_{i,k}=\text{avg case}_{I,k}\cdot(1+\tau)^{-(I-i)}$ .

Severity trend to future period $\;S_{proj}=S_{hist}(1+\tau)^{t}$ , $t$ = years from historical to projected average accident date.

Study strategy

Work Friedland's textbook examples in a spreadsheet and rebuild them from scratch.
Focus on 'explain and select' items — the exam asks you to justify the method choice as often as to compute.
Master the pricing-reserving interface: on-level premiums, ELRs for BF/Cape Cod, trend consistency.

Common traps

Trending only losses when premiums also need trend (average premium drift).
Applying reported CDFs to paid data in BF.
Ignoring changes in claim-count definitions when doing frequency–severity.

← SOA ERM SOA GIFREU →