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Longevity risk, cost of capital and hedging for life insurers under Solvency II

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  • Meyricke, Ramona
  • Sherris, Michael

Abstract

The cost of capital is an important factor determining the premiums charged by life insurers issuing life annuities. This capital cost can be reduced by hedging longevity risk with longevity swaps, a form of reinsurance. We assess the costs of longevity risk management using indemnity based longevity swaps compared to costs of holding capital under Solvency II. We show that, using a reasonable market price of longevity risk, the market cost of hedging longevity risk for earlier ages is lower than the cost of capital required under Solvency II. Longevity swaps covering higher ages, around 90 and above, have higher market hedging costs than the saving in the cost of regulatory capital. The Solvency II capital regulations for longevity risk generates an incentive for life insurers to hold longevity tail risk on their own balance sheets, rather than transferring this to the reinsurance or the capital markets. This aspect of the Solvency II capital requirements is not well understood and raises important policy issues for the management of longevity risk.

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  • Meyricke, Ramona & Sherris, Michael, 2014. "Longevity risk, cost of capital and hedging for life insurers under Solvency II," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 147-155.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:55:y:2014:i:c:p:147-155
    DOI: 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2014.01.010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Coppola, Mariarosaria & D’Amato, Valeria & Levantesi, Susanna, 2018. "An option pricing approach for measuring Solvency Capital Requirements in Insurance Industry," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 509(C), pages 717-728.
    2. Börger, Matthias & Freimann, Arne & Ruß, Jochen, 2021. "A combined analysis of hedge effectiveness and capital efficiency in longevity hedging," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 309-326.
    3. René Doff, 2016. "The Final Solvency II Framework: Will It Be Effective?," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 41(4), pages 587-607, October.
    4. Man Chung Fung & Katja Ignatieva & Michael Sherris, 2019. "Managing Systematic Mortality Risk in Life Annuities: An Application of Longevity Derivatives," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, January.
    5. Susanna Levantesi & Massimiliano Menzietti, 2017. "Maximum Market Price of Longevity Risk under Solvency Regimes: The Case of Solvency II," Risks, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Fadoua Zeddouk & Pierre Devolder, 2020. "Longevity Modelling and Pricing under a Dependent Multi-Cohort Framework," Risks, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-23, November.
    7. Derrick W. H. Fung & David Jou & Ai Ju Shao & Jason J. H. Yeh, 2018. "The Implications of the China Risk-Oriented Solvency System on the Life Insurance Market," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(4), pages 615-632, October.
    8. Man Chung Fung & Katja Ignatieva & Michael Sherris, 2015. "Managing Systematic Mortality Risk in Life Annuities: An Application of Longevity Derivatives," Papers 1508.00090, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capital management; Solvency; Longevity risk; Reinsurance; Securitisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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