IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/insuma/v46y2010i3p437-442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The conversion option in life insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Su, Karen C.

Abstract

This paper introduces an option that has been provided by life insurance companies extensively but has not been discussed in much in the literature; the conversion option. By constructing a valuation model, we first confirm that the conversion option may have positive values. We further find that the value of this option highly depends on the difference of the expected and actual mortality pattern after the insured individual converts his/her policy. Meanwhile, considering the general trend of mortality improvement, we incorporate this trend by applying the Lee-Carter model, hoping to provide a reasonable and fair valuation of the conversion option.

Suggested Citation

  • Su, Karen C., 2010. "The conversion option in life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-442, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:46:y:2010:i:3:p:437-442
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-6687(09)00172-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koissi, Marie-Claire & Shapiro, Arnold F. & Hognas, Goran, 2006. "Evaluating and extending the Lee-Carter model for mortality forecasting: Bootstrap confidence interval," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Costabile, Massimo & Massabó, Ivar & Russo, Emilio, 2008. "A binomial model for valuing equity-linked policies embedding surrender options," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 873-886, June.
    3. Melnikov, Alexander & Romaniuk, Yulia, 2006. "Evaluating the performance of Gompertz, Makeham and Lee-Carter mortality models for risk management with unit-linked contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 310-329, December.
    4. Bacinello, Anna Rita, 2005. "Endogenous model of surrender conditions in equity-linked life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 270-296, October.
    5. Carter, Lawrence R. & Lee, Ronald D., 1992. "Modeling and forecasting US sex differentials in mortality," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 393-411, November.
    6. Yijia Lin & Samuel H. Cox, 2005. "Securitization of Mortality Risks in Life Annuities," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 227-252, June.
    7. Brouhns, Natacha & Denuit, Michel & Vermunt, Jeroen K., 2002. "A Poisson log-bilinear regression approach to the construction of projected lifetables," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 373-393, December.
    8. Nordahl, Helge A., 2008. "Valuation of life insurance surrender and exchange options," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 909-919, June.
    9. Michel Denuit & Pierre Devolder & Anne‐Cécile Goderniaux, 2007. "Securitization of Longevity Risk: Pricing Survivor Bonds With Wang Transform in the Lee‐Carter Framework," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 74(1), pages 87-113, March.
    10. Bauer, Daniel & Kiesel, Rudiger & Kling, Alexander & Ru[ss], Jochen, 2006. "Risk-neutral valuation of participating life insurance contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 171-183, October.
    11. Steffensen, Mogens, 2002. "Intervention options in life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 71-85, August.
    12. Grosen, Anders & Lochte Jorgensen, Peter, 2000. "Fair valuation of life insurance liabilities: The impact of interest rate guarantees, surrender options, and bonus policies," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 37-57, February.
    13. Anna Rita Bacinello, 2003. "Fair Valuation of a Guaranteed Life Insurance Participating Contract Embedding a Surrender Option," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 70(3), pages 461-487, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guglielmo D'Amico & Montserrat Guillen & Raimondo Manca & Filippo Petroni, 2017. "Multi-state models for evaluating conversion options in life insurance," Papers 1707.01028, arXiv.org.
    2. Boonen, Tim J., 2019. "Equilibrium recoveries in insurance markets with limited liability," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 38-45.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Eling & Michael Kochanski, 2013. "Research on lapse in life insurance: what has been done and what needs to be done?," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(4), pages 392-413, August.
    2. Blake, David & El Karoui, Nicole & Loisel, Stéphane & MacMinn, Richard, 2018. "Longevity risk and capital markets: The 2015–16 update," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 157-173.
    3. Wang, Chou-Wen & Huang, Hong-Chih & Hong, De-Chuan, 2013. "A feasible natural hedging strategy for insurance companies," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 532-541.
    4. Blake, David & Cairns, Andrew J.G., 2021. "Longevity risk and capital markets: The 2019-20 update," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 395-439.
    5. Jennifer L. Wang & H.C. Huang & Sharon S. Yang & Jeffrey T. Tsai, 2010. "An Optimal Product Mix for Hedging Longevity Risk in Life Insurance Companies: The Immunization Theory Approach," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 473-497, June.
    6. Lee, Yung-Tsung & Wang, Chou-Wen & Huang, Hong-Chih, 2012. "On the valuation of reverse mortgages with regular tenure payments," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 430-441.
    7. Kochanski, Michael, 2010. "Solvency capital requirement for German unit-linked insurance products," German Risk and Insurance Review (GRIR), University of Cologne, Department of Risk Management and Insurance, vol. 6(2), pages 33-70.
    8. Berdin, Elia & Pancaro, Cosimo & Kok Sørensen, Christoffer, 2016. "A stochastic forward-looking model to assess the profitability and solvency of European insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 21/16, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    9. Schmeiser, H. & Wagner, J., 2011. "A joint valuation of premium payment and surrender options in participating life insurance contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 580-596.
    10. Tsai, Jeffrey T. & Wang, Jennifer L. & Tzeng, Larry Y., 2010. "On the optimal product mix in life insurance companies using conditional value at risk," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 235-241, February.
    11. Li, Johnny Siu-Hang, 2010. "Pricing longevity risk with the parametric bootstrap: A maximum entropy approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 176-186, October.
    12. Berdin, Elia, 2016. "Interest rate risk, longevity risk and the solvency of life insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 23/16, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    13. David Blake & Marco Morales & Enrico Biffis & Yijia Lin & Andreas Milidonis, 2017. "Special Edition: Longevity 10 – The Tenth International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conference," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(S1), pages 515-532, April.
    14. Bohnert, Alexander & Gatzert, Nadine, 2012. "Analyzing surplus appropriation schemes in participating life insurance from the insurer’s and the policyholder’s perspective," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 64-78.
    15. Kogure, Atsuyuki & Kurachi, Yoshiyuki, 2010. "A Bayesian approach to pricing longevity risk based on risk-neutral predictive distributions," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 162-172, February.
    16. Kevin Fergusson & Eckhard Platen, 2013. "Real World Pricing of Long Term Cash-Linked Annuities and Equity-Linked Annuities with Cash-Linked Guarantees," Research Paper Series 338, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    17. David Blake & Andrew Cairns & Guy Coughlan & Kevin Dowd & Richard MacMinn, 2013. "The New Life Market," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(3), pages 501-558, September.
    18. Hunt, Andrew & Blake, David, 2015. "Modelling longevity bonds: Analysing the Swiss Re Kortis bond," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 12-29.
    19. Russo, Vincenzo & Giacometti, Rosella & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2017. "Intensity-based framework for surrender modeling in life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 189-196.
    20. Stevens, R.S.P. & De Waegenaere, A.M.B. & Melenberg, B., 2011. "Longevity Risk and Natural Hedge Potential in Portfolios Of Life Insurance Products : The Effect of Investment Risk," Discussion Paper 2011-036, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:46:y:2010:i:3:p:437-442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505554 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.