Presenting a unique interface between statistics and financial/actuarial topics, this second edition provides a solid background for students preparing for a career in actuarial science. It explores novel research areas and adds more problems, along with a new solutions section. This edition also includes a new chapter on Markov chain theory with applications to mortality and multiple decrement mortality table modeling, a presentation of model checking diagnostics that covers diagnostics for mortality tables, and an expanded discussion on option pricing with examples.