What does CAS Exam 6-U.S. cover?

Exam 6-U.S. (Regulation and Financial Reporting, Nation Specific) covers four domains in the CAS Syllabus of Basic Education: US laws and regulations (10-20%), covering McCarran-Ferguson and state-based regulation, the NAIC and its model laws, rate regulation systems, market conduct, and guaranty funds; government programs (5-15%), covering the flood program, the federal terrorism backstop, workers compensation state funds, and residual markets; financial reporting, taxation and professional responsibilities (60-75%), covering statutory accounting and SSAPs, the Annual Statement and its schedules, the Insurance Expense Exhibit, risk-based capital, IRIS ratios, insurer taxation, and the Statement of Actuarial Opinion; and reinsurance accounting principles (5-10%), covering risk transfer, prospective versus retroactive treatment, deposit accounting, and Schedule F. Domain C alone is 60-75% of the exam, so statutory reporting and the Appointed Actuary material are where most of the study time goes.

How hard is CAS Exam 6-U.S.?

The difficulty is different in kind from the preliminaries rather than simply higher. Exam 6-U.S. is a written-answer exam, so credit is awarded per scoreable element and there are no choices to work backward from. The volume of material is large and much of it is enumerated (opinion types, action levels, IRIS ratios, disclosure requirements), which rewards structured recall over calculation speed. CAS publishes pass rate by sitting on casact.org; upper-level pass rates typically run above the preliminary exams, which reflects a more self-selected candidate pool rather than an easier paper. The most common failure mode is not a gap in knowledge but an inability to produce a complete, well-worded answer inside the time budget.

How many hours of study does CAS Exam 6-U.S. take?

CAS does not publish an official hour recommendation. Candidate and prep-provider consensus runs 300 to 350 hours for candidates already working in P&C financial reporting or valuation, 350 to 400 hours for those with P&C experience outside reporting (pricing, reserving, analytics), and 400 to 450 hours for candidates with no exposure to statutory reporting. Most candidates spread that over 16 to 18 weeks at 20 to 25 hours per week. Past the halfway point, hours spent writing full answers under time are worth more than hours re-reading source material.

What free CAS Exam 6-U.S. resources does FreeFellow offer?

630 original practice questions across the eight Exam 6-U.S. topic areas, each with a step-by-step solution. 345 walkthrough questions reproduced from published CAS exam papers (Fall 2013 through Fall 2019), presented with the examiner's report sample answers and grader commentary, attributed to the CAS-published source. 24 written lessons covering the syllabus. A dedicated Exam 6-U.S. formula sheet, downloadable as a print-ready PDF. All of it is free with no trial period, no question cap, and no credit card. A timed mock sitting is not part of the launch, so use the past-exam walkthroughs as timed practice. AI grading of written answers is a paid Fellow feature. FreeFellow is not affiliated with the Casualty Actuarial Society.

How is a CAS written-answer exam graded?

Each question is worth a stated number of points, and graders award partial credit per scoreable element rather than all-or-nothing per question. After every sitting CAS publishes an examiner's report containing the questions, sample answers that earned credit, and commentary on what graders observed across the candidate population. Those sample answers are the scoring standard, and the commentary is the fastest way to learn what a grader rewards. Two consequences matter: the question verb controls the shape of the answer (list, briefly describe, fully discuss, and calculate each want something different), and showing work on a calculation earns points even when the final number is wrong. Budget minutes per point rather than per question.

CAS Exam 6-U.S. Study Guide (Regulation and Financial Reporting, 2026)

CAS Exam 6-U.S. (Regulation and Financial Reporting): 2026 Study Guide

Exam 6-U.S. is the second upper-level exam in the CAS credentialing path and the last exam required for the Associate (ACAS) designation. It covers how US property and casualty insurance is regulated, how an insurer reports its condition on the statutory Annual Statement, how solvency is measured, how insurers are taxed, and what the Appointed Actuary signs when the reserve opinion goes out.

It is also a written-answer exam, and that one fact should reshape how you study. Much of this guide is about why.

FreeFellow hosts the full Exam 6-U.S. stack free: 630 original practice questions with step-by-step solutions, 345 walkthroughs of past CAS exam questions (Fall 2013 through Fall 2019) carrying the published examiner's report sample answers and grader commentary, 24 lessons, and a formula sheet. No trial period, no question cap, no credit card.

Start practicing Exam 6-U.S. (630 free questions)

Note

FreeFellow is not affiliated with the Casualty Actuarial Society. CAS does not endorse, promote, review, or warrant the accuracy or quality of FreeFellow products or services. The past-exam questions, sample answers, and grader commentary reproduced on FreeFellow are attributed to the CAS-published examiner's reports.

Where Exam 6-U.S. Sits in the CAS Path

Exam	Administered by	Format
Exam 1/P (Probability)	Joint SOA & CAS	3 hours, 30 MCQ
Exam 2/FM (Financial Mathematics)	Joint SOA & CAS	3 hours, 35 MCQ
MAS-I (Modern Actuarial Statistics I)	CAS only	4 hours, 45 MCQ
MAS-II (Modern Actuarial Statistics II)	CAS only	4 hours, 45 MCQ
Exam 5 (Basic Techniques for Ratemaking and Estimating Claim Liabilities)	CAS only	Written-answer
Exam 6 (Regulation and Financial Reporting)	CAS only	Written-answer
Exam 7 (Estimation of Policy Liabilities, Insurance Company Valuation, and ERM)	CAS only	Written-answer
Exam 8 (Advanced Ratemaking)	CAS only	Written-answer
Exam 9 (Financial Risk and Rate of Return)	CAS only	Written-answer

Exam 5 and Exam 6 share almost no content: Exam 5 is ratemaking and reserving technique, Exam 6 is regulation, reporting, and professional responsibility. Most candidates take Exam 5 first, because Exam 6 assumes you know what a loss reserve is before asking you to read one off Schedule P or opine on it. CAS also administers nation-specific versions, so material for another variant is not a substitute.

What Exam 6-U.S. Tests

The CAS Syllabus of Basic Education organizes the exam into four domains: US laws and regulations (10-20%), government programs (5-15%), financial reporting, taxation and professional responsibilities (60-75%), and reinsurance accounting principles (5-10%). Domain C at 60-75% is the exam. The regulation and government-program material is genuinely tested, but it will not carry a sitting on its own.

FreeFellow splits the same syllabus into eight practice topics so you can drill at a finer grain:

Topic	Weight	Representative content
Regulation Foundations & the NAIC	5-8%	McCarran-Ferguson, NAIC model laws, accreditation, rate regulation systems and rate standards
Solvency, Specialty Markets & Emerging Regulation	6-9%	Financial examinations, ORSA, guaranty funds, risk retention groups, cyber and climate disclosure
Tort Environment & Government Programs	8-14%	Tort reform and no-fault, flood, the terrorism backstop, state funds, FAIR plans
Primary Statements & Statutory Accounting	14-18%	SSAPs, admitted assets, SAP vs GAAP, the balance sheet, changes in surplus
Annual Statement Schedules & the IEE	14-18%	Schedule P Parts 1 through 7, Schedules F and T, IEE Parts I, II and III
Solvency Metrics: RBC & IRIS	10-14%	R0 through R5, the covariance adjustment, the four action levels, the 13 IRIS ratios
The Appointed Actuary: SAO, AOS & Professionalism	14-18%	The five opinion types, scope vs relevant comments, the AOS, ASOPs 36, 41 and 43
Insurer Taxation & Reinsurance Accounting	10-15%	Loss reserve discounting, the 20% revenue offset, proration, risk transfer testing

Three topics at 14-18% each are roughly half the paper. Read a Schedule P triangle, compute an RBC action level, and write a defensible SAO answer, and you have the core.

Written-Answer Changes How You Study

Everything through MAS-II is multiple choice. Exam 6-U.S. is not. You get a four-hour paper of constructed-response questions worth a stated number of points each, and a grader reads what you wrote.

Dimension	MCQ preliminaries	Upper-level written answer
What you must do	Recognize the right answer	Produce the answer from nothing
Backsolving	Often possible	Not available
Credit	All or nothing per question	Partial credit per scoreable element
The standard	The answer key	The examiner's report sample answers
What to practice	Speed and accuracy	Producing complete answers under time

Four things follow.

Practice producing, not recognizing. Reading a solution and nodding is not studying for this exam. Close the source, write the answer out, then compare. Candidates who only read solutions find on exam day that they knew the material and could not write it down.

The examiner's report is the scoring standard. After each sitting CAS publishes the questions, sample answers that earned credit, and commentary on what graders actually saw. That commentary is the most useful study document for this exam and the least read. FreeFellow's 345 walkthroughs reproduce it with attribution, so you can hold your attempt against what scored.

Parse the verb. "List" wants items, not sentences. "Briefly describe" wants an item plus a clause of why. "Fully discuss" wants an argument. "Calculate" wants shown work, because the work carries partial credit even when the number is wrong.

Budget minutes per point, not per question. Divide the sitting's minutes by the total points on the paper. A five-point question you are still polishing at double that rate is paid for out of a question you never reach.

Exam 6 has a second wrinkle: next to Exam 5 it is barely computational. Real calculations exist (RBC, IRIS ratios, IEE allocations, the tax computation, development off Schedule P), but most points come from structured recall and explanation. Name the four action levels, describe what the regulator does at each, explain why the NAIC requires it. So build lists, rehearse them, and attach the "why" to every item, because bare lists rarely earn full credit on a describe question.

How Many Hours You Need

CAS does not publish an hour recommendation. Candidate and prep-provider consensus:

Working in P&C financial reporting or valuation (the Annual Statement crosses your desk): 300 to 350 hours
P&C experience outside reporting (pricing, reserving, analytics): 350 to 400 hours
No exposure to statutory reporting: 400 to 450 hours

Most candidates run 16 to 18 weeks at 20 to 25 hours per week. Past the halfway point, the marginal hour is worth more spent writing answers than re-reading.

Common Trap

Treating the Appointed Actuary block as soft, unstudiable content. The SAO, the Actuarial Opinion Summary, and the professionalism material carry 14-18% and are among the most predictably tested items on the paper, precisely because the requirements are enumerated and a grader can score them exactly. Candidates who drill RBC and skim ASOP 36 give away points sitting in the open.

What's Free on FreeFellow

Question bank (entirely free). 630 original practice questions across the eight topic areas, each with a step-by-step solution. Browsable without an account.

Past-exam walkthroughs. 345 questions from published CAS Exam 6-U.S. papers (Fall 2013 through Fall 2019) with the examiner's report sample answers and grader commentary, attributed to the CAS-published source. This is the highest-fidelity training set for the exam, and the one that teaches you what earns points.

Written lessons. 24 lessons covering the syllabus, from the NAIC through Schedule P, RBC, the SAO, taxation, and reinsurance accounting.

Formula sheet. A dedicated reference at /free/cas-exam-6u/formula-sheet/, downloadable as a print-ready PDF: RBC covariance and action-level thresholds, IRIS definitions and usual ranges, IEE allocation relationships, and the tax and reinsurance mechanics.

Not yet available. A timed mock sitting is not part of the Exam 6-U.S. launch. Use the past papers instead: pick one, set four hours, write full answers, then grade against the sample answers.

Fellow tier (optional, $59 / quarter or $149 / year per track). AI grading of your written answers against the examiner's report standard, flashcards, topic-level analytics, and a study plan. Everything named above stays free.

A 16-Week Plan

Weeks 1-4: Regulation, solvency oversight, and government programs. McCarran-Ferguson, the NAIC, model laws and accreditation, rate regulation systems and rate standards, then financial examinations, ORSA, guaranty funds, flood, terrorism, state funds, FAIR plans, and the tort environment. Light on computation and heavy on vocabulary, so start building your lists here.

Weeks 5-8: Statutory accounting and the Annual Statement. The largest block. SSAPs and admitted assets, SAP vs GAAP, the primary statements, then Schedules P, F and T and the IEE. Pull numbers off a real statement page rather than reading about one.

Weeks 9-10: RBC and IRIS. R0 through R5, the covariance adjustment, the action levels, the trend test, the 13 IRIS ratios and usual ranges. The most calculation-dense stretch of the syllabus.

Weeks 11-12: The Appointed Actuary. Opinion types, scope and relevant comments, materiality, the AOS, the Actuarial Report, ASOPs and the Code. Write full answers from day one; this material is graded on wording.

Weeks 13-14: Taxation and reinsurance accounting. Loss reserve discounting, the revenue offset, proration, then risk transfer testing, prospective vs retroactive treatment, and the provision for reinsurance.

Weeks 15-16: Past papers under time. Work the walkthrough set as full timed sittings, then log every lost point by cause: did not know it, knew it and wrote it badly, ran out of time. Fix the middle cause first. It is the cheapest to recover.

Start Practicing

CAS Exam 6-U.S. free practice questions, or open the full study app
CAS Exam 5 Study Guide for the ratemaking and reserving half of the pair
CAS Exam MAS-II Study Guide for the last multiple-choice exam
SOA vs CAS: which actuarial path is right for you for candidates still choosing
Best free actuarial exam prep resources for 2026 for the cross-actuarial overview

FreeFellow is not affiliated with the Casualty Actuarial Society. CAS does not endorse, promote, review, or warrant the accuracy or quality of FreeFellow products or services.