IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/insuma/v51y2012i3p586-598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal consumption and allocation in variable annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits

Author

Listed:
  • Gao, Jin
  • Ulm, Eric R.

Abstract

We determine the optimal allocation of funds between the fixed and variable subaccounts in a variable annuity with a GMDB (Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit) clause featuring partial withdrawals by using a utility-based approach. The Merton method is applied by assuming that individuals allocate funds optimally in order to maximize the expected utility of lifetime consumption. It also reflects bequest motives by including the recipient’s utility in terms of the policyholder’s guaranteed death benefits. We derive the optimal transfer choice by the insured, and furthermore price the GMDB through maximizing the discounted expected utility of the policyholders and beneficiaries by investing dynamically in the fixed account and variable fund and withdrawing optimally.

Suggested Citation

  • Gao, Jin & Ulm, Eric R., 2012. "Optimal consumption and allocation in variable annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 586-598.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:51:y:2012:i:3:p:586-598
    DOI: 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2012.08.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167668712001047
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.insmatheco.2012.08.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Brown, Jeffrey R., 2001. "Private pensions, mortality risk, and the decision to annuitize," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 29-62, October.
    2. Bernheim, B Douglas, 1991. "How Strong Are Bequest Motives? Evidence Based on Estimates of the Demand for Life Insurance and Annuities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 899-927, October.
    3. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1999. "New Evidence on the Money's Worth of Individual Annuities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1299-1318, December.
    4. Richard, Scott F., 1975. "Optimal consumption, portfolio and life insurance rules for an uncertain lived individual in a continuous time model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 187-203, June.
    5. Menahem E. Yaari, 1965. "Uncertain Lifetime, Life Insurance, and the Theory of the Consumer," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(2), pages 137-150.
    6. Blake, David & Cairns, Andrew J. G. & Dowd, Kevin, 2003. "Pensionmetrics 2: stochastic pension plan design during the distribution phase," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 29-47, August.
    7. Mariacristina De Nardi, 2004. "Wealth Inequality and Intergenerational Links," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 743-768.
    8. Moshe Arye Milevsky, 2001. "Optimal Annuitization Policies," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 57-69.
    9. Bauer, Daniel & Kling, Alexander & Russ, Jochen, 2008. "A Universal Pricing Framework for Guaranteed Minimum Benefits in Variable Annuities1," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 621-651, November.
    10. Eric R. Ulm, 2006. "The Effect of the Real Option to Transfer on the Value of Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 73(1), pages 43-69, March.
    11. Boyle, Phelim P., 1988. "A Lattice Framework for Option Pricing with Two State Variables," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 1-12, March.
    12. Kotlikoff, Laurence J & Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 706-732, August.
    13. A. C. Belanger & P. A. Forsyth & G. Labahn, 2009. "Valuing the Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit Clause with Partial Withdrawals," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 451-496.
    14. Coleman, Thomas F. & Li, Yuying & Patron, Maria-Cristina, 2006. "Hedging guarantees in variable annuities under both equity and interest rate risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 215-228, April.
    15. Charupat, Narat & Milevsky, Moshe A., 2002. "Optimal asset allocation in life annuities: a note," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 199-209, April.
    16. Tim Leung & Ronnie Sircar, 2009. "Accounting For Risk Aversion, Vesting, Job Termination Risk And Multiple Exercises In Valuation Of Employee Stock Options," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 99-128, January.
    17. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    18. John Ameriks & Andrew Caplin & Steven Laufer & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2011. "The Joy of Giving or Assisted Living? Using Strategic Surveys to Separate Public Care Aversion from Bequest Motives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 519-561, April.
    19. Chen, Z. & Vetzal, K. & Forsyth, P.A., 2008. "The effect of modelling parameters on the value of GMWB guarantees," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 165-173, August.
    20. Min Dai & Yue Kuen Kwok & Jianping Zong, 2008. "Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit In Variable Annuities," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 595-611, October.
    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. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rogalla, Ralph, 2015. "Optimal life cycle portfolio choice with variable annuities offering liquidity and investment downside protection," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-107.
    2. Steinorth, Petra & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2015. "Valuing variable annuities with guaranteed minimum lifetime withdrawal benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 246-258.
    3. Yung-Tsung Lee & Tianxiang Shi, 2022. "Valuation of Reverse Mortgages with Surrender: A Utility Approach," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 593-621, November.
    4. Pavel V. Shevchenko & Xiaolin Luo, 2016. "A Unified Pricing of Variable Annuity Guarantees under the Optimal Stochastic Control Framework," Risks, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-31, July.
    5. Ulm, Eric, 2020. "Analytic Valuation of GMDB Options with Utility Based Asset Allocation," Working Paper Series 21060, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    6. Thorsten Moenig, 2021. "Efficient valuation of variable annuity portfolios with dynamic programming," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 1023-1055, December.
    7. Pavel V. Shevchenko & Xiaolin Luo, 2016. "A unified pricing of variable annuity guarantees under the optimal stochastic control framework," Papers 1605.00339, arXiv.org.
    8. Gan, Guojun, 2013. "Application of data clustering and machine learning in variable annuity valuation," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 795-801.
    9. Kevin Maritato & Morton Lane & Matthew Murphy & Stan Uryasev, 2022. "Optimal Allocation of Retirement Portfolios," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, February.
    10. Gao, Jin & Ulm, Eric R., 2015. "Optimal allocation and consumption with guaranteed minimum death benefits, external income and term life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 87-98.
    11. Huang, H. & Milevsky, M.A. & Salisbury, T.S., 2014. "Optimal initiation of a GLWB in a variable annuity: No Arbitrage approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 102-111.
    12. Xu, Wei & Chen, Yuehuan & Coleman, Conrad & Coleman, Thomas F., 2018. "Moment matching machine learning methods for risk management of large variable annuity portfolios," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-20.
    13. Ulm, Eric, 2020. "Analytic Valuation of GMDB Options with Utility Based Asset Allocation," Working Paper Series 8566, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    14. Dong, Bing & Xu, Wei & Sevic, Aleksandar & Sevic, Zeljko, 2020. "Efficient willow tree method for variable annuities valuation and risk management☆," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. Anne Mackay & Marie-Claude Vachon, 2023. "On an Optimal Stopping Problem with a Discontinuous Reward," Papers 2311.03538, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    16. Gan, Guojun & Lin, X. Sheldon, 2015. "Valuation of large variable annuity portfolios under nested simulation: A functional data approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 138-150.
    17. Tang, Chun-Hua, 2018. "Subjective value of the guarantees embedded in public cash-balance pension plans," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 231-250, April.
    18. Moenig, Thorsten, 2021. "Variable annuities: Market incompleteness and policyholder behavior," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-78.
    19. Wang, Yayun & Zhang, Zhimin & Yu, Wenguang, 2021. "Pricing equity-linked death benefits by complex Fourier series expansion in a regime-switching jump diffusion model," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 399(C).

    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. Steinorth, Petra & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2015. "Valuing variable annuities with guaranteed minimum lifetime withdrawal benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 246-258.
    2. Milevsky, Moshe A. & Young, Virginia R., 2007. "Annuitization and asset allocation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 3138-3177, September.
    3. Horneff, Wolfram J. & Maurer, Raimond H. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Dus, Ivica, 2008. "Following the rules: Integrating asset allocation and annuitization in retirement portfolios," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 396-408, February.
    4. Stamos, Michael Z., 2008. "Optimal consumption and portfolio choice for pooled annuity funds," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 56-68, August.
    5. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    6. Moenig, Thorsten, 2021. "Variable annuities: Market incompleteness and policyholder behavior," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-78.
    7. Hugo Benitez-Silva, 2000. "A Dynamic Model Of Labor Supply, Consumption/Saving, And Annuity Decisions Under Uncertainty," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 128, Society for Computational Economics.
    8. Hugo Benitez-Silva, 2000. "A Joint Model of Labor Supply and Consumption Decisions Under Uncertainty," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0196, Econometric Society.
    9. Hugo Benítez-Silva, 2003. "The Annuity Puzzle Revisited," Working Papers wp055, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. Seyed Amir Hejazi & Kenneth R. Jackson & Guojun Gan, 2017. "A Spatial Interpolation Framework for Efficient Valuation of Large Portfolios of Variable Annuities," Papers 1701.04134, arXiv.org.
    11. Zhang, Jinhui & Purcal, Sachi & Wei, Jiaqin, 2021. "Optimal life insurance and annuity demand under hyperbolic discounting when bequests are luxury goods," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PA), pages 80-90.
    12. Horneff, Wolfram J. & Maurer, Raimond H. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Stamos, Michael Z., 2009. "Asset allocation and location over the life cycle with investment-linked survival-contingent payouts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1688-1699, September.
    13. Johannes Hagen, 2015. "The determinants of annuitization: evidence from Sweden," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(4), pages 549-578, August.
    14. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2016. "Savings After Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 177-204, October.
    15. Jeffrey Brown, 2001. "Are the Elderly Really Over-Annuitized? New Evidence on Life Insurance and Bequests," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 91-126, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Bütler, Monika & Peijnenburg, Kim & Staubli, Stefan, 2017. "How much do means-tested benefits reduce the demand for annuities?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 419-449, October.
    17. Love, David A. & Palumbo, Michael G. & Smith, Paul A., 2009. "The trajectory of wealth in retirement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 191-208, February.
    18. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rogalla, Ralph, 2015. "Optimal life cycle portfolio choice with variable annuities offering liquidity and investment downside protection," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-107.
    19. Jang, Bong-Gyu & Koo, Hyeng Keun & Park, Seyoung, 2019. "Optimal consumption and investment with insurer default risk," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 44-56.
    20. Gan, Li & Gong, Guan & Hurd, Michael & McFadden, Daniel, 2015. "Subjective mortality risk and bequests," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 514-525.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GMDB; Variable annuity; Merton model; Expected utility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:51:y:2012:i:3:p:586-598. 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.