Students earn a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree in Risk Management
& Insurance. Students may select to emphasize property and casualty, life and health,
estate planning, financial planning, employee benefits or risk management. Other concentrations
available in the Department of Economics and Finance under the Finance major are Business Finance, Financial Institution Management, and Real Estate.
For complete curriculum details, click on the REQUIREMENTS button to the right.
A minor in Insurance and a composite minor in Real Estate/Insurance are available.
Other undergraduate minors include Economics, Economics and Finance, Industrial Relations,
Finance, and Real Estate.
Other programs in the department
Undergraduate
The Department of Economics and Finance also offers two undergraduate degrees with
a major in Economics: a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) and a Bachelor of Science (B.S.). The B.B.A. is a business major, also available
with a concentration Labor Relations. The B.S. is offered through the College of Liberal
Arts.
Graduate
Graduate students have a number of options in the Department of Economics and Finance.
They can earn a Master of Science (M.S.) in Finance, choosing among concentrations in Corporate Finance, General, or Investments. Or
they can earn Master of Arts (M.A.) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Economics. A concentration in Financial Economics is available under the M.A.
Finance
FIN 2010 - Personal Financial Planning
3 credit hours
(Same as ECON 2110.) Includes budgeting and saving techniques, tax planning, insurance principles, consumer credit, housing, investment alternatives, and retirement and estate issues.
FIN 3000 - Survey of Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Junior standing. Will not substitute for FIN 3010. An overview of the fundamental concepts and tools for financial decision making within a business firm. (Not open to business majors.)
FIN 3010 - Principles of Corporate Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Junior standing. Theory of corporate finance, emphasizing wealth creation, valuation, risk, capital budgeting, and cost of capital.
FIN 3030 - Principles of Real Estate
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Real estate practices and procedures, basic principles of real property ownership utilization and transfer, mortgage financing, brokerage, management, valuation, subdividing, and legislation.
FIN 3040 - Entrepreneurial Financial Management
3 credit hours
(Same as ENTR 3040.) Prerequisites: ENTR 2900; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Focuses on tools, processes, systems, and practices used by entrepreneurs to manage resources. Specific focus on cash budgeting, working capital management, sources of capital, and financial analysis/forecasting for the small business/startup
FIN 3050 - Principles of Risk Management and Insurance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing; admission into the College of Business. An introductory study of the risk management process and the importance of insurance as a method of handling risk; insurance carriers; regulation of the insurance industry; home and auto insurance; life and health insurance; workers compensation and employee benefits.
FIN 3090 - Financial Planning
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 2010, FIN 3000, or FIN 3010; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Financial and estate planning with a focus on issues and applications relevant to professional financial and estate planners. Topics include the role of the planner, the planning process, insurance planning, estate planning, retirement planning, tax planning, cash management, credit management, and comprehensive financial and estate plans.
FIN 3099 - Special Topics in Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: FIN 3000 or FIN 3010 or permission of instructor. An in-depth study of a special topic in finance. Interested students should contact the instructor for specifics.
FIN 3110 - Financial Modeling
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 2010, FIN 3000, or FIN 3010; admission into the College of Business. Modeling financial problems in a spreadsheet and using financial models to assist in decision making.
FIN 3120 - Financial Data Analysis
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3010; admission into the Jones College of Business; Finance majors only. Introduces students to the use of programming to answer empirical questions within finance. Students will progress through hypothesis generation, to opening data, cleaning data, preparing the data for analysis, and creating models and visualizations to provide actionable insights. Focuses on empirically understanding foundational theories within finance.
FIN 3210 - The Financial System and the Economy
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410; junior standing. Basic introduction to the functions of financial institutions and markets in the conduct of domestic and international economic transactions. Within financial market context, focus on special role that money plays as an asset and a determinant of the price level, the cause of inflation and inflation's effects on interest rates and borrowing costs, and the influence of Federal Reserve actions (monetary policy) on money and interest rates.
FIN 3430 - Public Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as ECON 3430.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Economic foundations of federal tax and expenditure policies. Current issues in federal budget policy. Policy applications illustrating key concepts such as public goods, externalities, income distribution, tax incidence, tax equity, and allocative efficiency. Intergovernmental fiscal relations.
FIN 3660 - Life Insurance and Health Insurance
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission into the College of Business. Problems of purchaser and seller; critical investigation of life and health insurance with emphasis on social and economic aspects.
FIN 3750 - Commercial Insurance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: FIN 3050; admission into the College of Business. Examines the concepts and coverages of commercial property and liability insurance. Primary emphasis on loss exposures faced by typical organizations and the corresponding types of insurance for covering those loss exposures. Additional emphasis placed on commercial liability insurance.
FIN 3810 - Investments
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 2010, FIN 3000, or FIN 3010; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Introductory survey course focusing on investment markets and instruments. Emphasis on security characteristics, analysis, and valuation.
FIN 3950 - Corporate Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3010 with a minimum grade of C (2.00); junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Reviews and extends the basics of risk, valuation, and the creation of wealth. Explores capital budgeting, capital structure, and their interactions.
FIN 4015 - Financial Statement Analysis
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3950; admission into the College of Business. Impact of management decisions, strategies, and policies on the firm's financial statements. Focuses on how to interpret financial statements, analyze cash flows, and how to quantitatively and qualitatively value a firm's performance.
FIN 4100 - Advanced Financial Data Analysis and Applications
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: FIN 3120 or DATA 3500. Focuses on developing advanced financial data analysis skills, including financial data gathering, momentum and value factor investing, portfolio creation, and conveying complex financial data in an easily understood format.
FIN 4110 - Cases in Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3010 with minimum grade of C, FIN 3110, FIN 3810, and FIN 3950; and admission into the College of Business. A case course emphasizing the financial aspects of management. Topics include financial statement analysis, working capital management, capital budgeting, and cost of capital.
FIN 4260 - Financial Markets and Institutions
3 credit hours
(Same as ECON 4260.) Prerequisites: FIN 3010; junior standing; and admission into the Jones College of Business. Examines the structure and functioning of our monetary-financial system. Emphasis on the institutional process of financial intermediation in the financial marketplace and the role that specific institutions and instruments play.
FIN 4310 - Problems in Government Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as ECON 4310). Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Current issues in taxation, theory of income taxation, consumption taxes, property and wealth taxes. Advanced treatment of tax incidence, tax efficiency, income distribution, fiscal federalism, and state and local budget issues.
FIN 4390 - Employee Benefits
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission into the College of Business. Includes descriptive review and taxation, legislative, and administrative dimensions of the major components of employee benefit plans such as retirement systems, deferred compensation plans, health insurance, death benefits, disability benefits, paid and unpaid time off. Technical analysis and problem solving emphasized to develop applied skills. Social insurance and international benefits integrated.
FIN 4430 - Real Property Valuation
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3030; junior standing;admission into the College of Business; and FIN 3010 strongly recommended. Theory and methods of real property valuation. Employs qualitative and quantitative analysis to appraise residential and income-producing properties. Emphasizes comparable sales, cost-depreciation, and income capitalization.
FIN 4440 - Real Estate Finance
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing; admission into the College of Business; FIN 3030; FIN 3000 or FIN 3010. Financial analysis applied to various types of real property. Includes underwriting, sources of funds, portfolio problems, and government programs. Emphasizes analysis of money and mortgage markets and modern creative financing.
FIN 4470 - Real Property Law for Commerce and Agriculture
3 credit hours
(Same as AGBS 3140 and BLAW 4470.) Prerequisite: Junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Legal rights and limitations of ownership of property, estates, titles, methods of transferring titles, abstract of titles, mortgages, leases, easements, restrictions on the use of property, real estate development, application of contract law to real property, and the role of real estate in the administration of estates. Emphasis on specific application to agricultural businesses and farms.
FIN 4510 - Real Estate Brokerage and Management
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3030; FIN 3000 or FIN 3010; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Management principles and techniques for the successful real estate brokerage firm. Topics emphasized are organizing, planning, management, marketing, and advertising techniques.
FIN 4550 - Real Estate Investment Analysis
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3030; FIN 3000 or FIN 3010; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Analysis of real estate projects and markets. Emphasizes market research, taxes, financing techniques, and discounted cash flow analysis. Requires computer-assisted investment tools and case analysis.
FIN 4590 - Independent Study in Real Estate
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission into the College of Business. Current analysis of issues in the field of real estate with concentration on major problems and policies in managing real estate and other related resources.
FIN 4710 - Estate Planning
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3050; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Insurance as it may relate to estate planning examined in detail. Focus on estate planning principles including the problems of estate liquidity, taxation, governmental regulation, and costs involved in handling estates. Also included are ownership provisions and beneficiary designations, settlement options, and trusts.
FIN 4730 - Insurance Company Operations
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3050; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Insurance marketing, underwriting, reinsurance, rate making, claims adjusting, loss control activities, and other functions and activities.
FIN 4750 - Enterprise Risk Management
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3050; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. A capstone course for Risk Management and Insurance majors. Students implement concepts learned in other courses to develop a broad framework for identifying, assessing, controlling, and financing the ever-increasing portfolio of risks threatening the organization's business model and strategic plan.
FIN 4780 - Behavioral Economics and Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as ECON 4780.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420 and FIN 3010; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Concepts in behavioral economics and finance. Focuses on common behavioral tendencies not well integrated into standard neoclassical economic theory. Topics include other regarding preferences, risk aversion, sunk cost fallacies, endowment effects, and common biases and errors in judgment and decision making. Explores applications of these concepts in finance and other areas of business.
FIN 4790 - Independent Study in Insurance
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Admission into the College of Business. Application of various insurance coverages to fulfillment of personal, business, and social needs. Special problems chosen or assigned in areas of the student's interest in joint consultation between student and instructor.
FIN 4810 - Portfolio Theory and Management
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Senior standing; FIN 3810; and admission into the College of Business. Rigorous development of investment theory from its origins to current extensions and alternatives. Emphasis on investor rationality, efficient portfolio selection, capital asset pricing and options valuation models, and market efficiency.
FIN 4850 - International Insurance Markets
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: FIN 3050; admission to the Jones College of Business. International business concepts with emphasis on the insurance industry. Transfer of risk to ultimate risk bearers abroad. Students required to hold (or acquire) a valid US passport and participate in a one- to two-week visit to a foreign country during the course.
FIN 4860 - International Financial Management
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Senior standing; admission into the College of Business; and FIN 3010. International capital markets, exchange rate exposure, risk management, and other multinational finance issues. Essential not only for United States exporters, but also for those facing competition from abroad.
FIN 4880 - Internship in Risk Management or Insurance
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior status; admission into College of Business; and recommendation of advisor. Supervised work experience in an approved insurance agency/brokerage, insurance company, or risk management department of a business entity or government agency. Pass/Fail.
FIN 4890 - Internship in Finance
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior status; admission into the College of Business; and recommendation of advisor. Supervised work experience in cooperating business firms or government agencies together with specialized academic study relating to the work experience. Pass/Fail.
FIN 4900 - TVA Investment Challenge
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3010 and admission into the College of Business. Theories and concepts related to investing, security analysis and portfolio management in the management of a real portfolio of stocks. Topics include TVA investment guidelines, portfolio management strategies, stock selection, investment gurus, individual investment styles, data sources and Internet sites, stock screening techniques, and portfolio rebalancing.
FIN 4910 - Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: FIN 3010 or equivalent; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Valuation and hedging of options, forward contracts, futures contracts, swaps, and other derivatives. Examines fundamental tools commonly used for pricing and hedging and options and futures contracts. For undergraduate and graduate students with little mathematics beyond algebra.
FIN 4950 - Finance Competition and Challenge
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and permission of department. Students engage in projects related to local, regional, and/or national competitions in finance.
FIN 4990 - Independent Study in Finance
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission to the College of Business. Problems for intensive study are chosen in joint consultation between student and instructor.
