IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/finsto/v23y2019i1d10.1007_s00780-018-00379-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the free boundary of an annuity purchase

Author

Listed:
  • Tiziano Angelis

    (University of Leeds)

  • Gabriele Stabile

    (Sapienza-Università di Roma)

Abstract

It is known that the decision to purchase an annuity may be associated to an optimal stopping problem. However, little is known about optimal strategies if the mortality force is a generic function of time and the subjective life expectancy of the investor differs from the objective one adopted by insurance companies to price annuities. In this paper, we address this problem by considering an individual who invests in a fund and has the option to convert the fund’s value into an annuity at any time. We formulate the problem as a real option and perform a detailed probabilistic study of the optimal stopping boundary. Due to the generic time-dependence of the mortality force, our optimal stopping problem requires new solution methods to deal with nonmonotonic optimal boundaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiziano Angelis & Gabriele Stabile, 2019. "On the free boundary of an annuity purchase," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 97-137, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:finsto:v:23:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s00780-018-00379-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00780-018-00379-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00780-018-00379-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00780-018-00379-8?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. E. Chevalier, 2006. "Optimal Early Retirement Near the Expiration of a Pension Plan," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 204-221, April.
    2. Hainaut, Donatien & Deelstra, Griselda, 2014. "Optimal timing for annuitization, based on jump diffusion fund and stochastic mortality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 124-146.
    3. Russell Gerrard & Bjarne Højgaard & Elena Vigna, 2012. "Choosing the optimal annuitization time post-retirement," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(7), pages 1143-1159, September.
    4. Gabriele Stabile, 2006. "Optimal Timing Of The Annuity Purchase: Combined Stochastic Control And Optimal Stopping Problem," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(02), pages 151-170.
    5. Wang, Shaun, 1996. "Premium Calculation by Transforming the Layer Premium Density," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 71-92, May.
    6. 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.
    7. E. Chevalier, 2006. "Optimal Early Retirement Near the Expiration of a Pension Plan," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 204-221, April.
    8. Avner Friedman & Weixi Shen, 2002. "A variational inequality approach to financial valuation of retirement benefits based on salary," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 273-302.
    9. Tiziano De Angelis & Erik Ekstrom, 2016. "The dividend problem with a finite horizon," Papers 1609.01655, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2017.
    10. 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.
    11. Goran Peskir, 2005. "On The American Option Problem," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 169-181, January.
    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. Zhenya Liu & Yuhao Mu, 2022. "Optimal Stopping Methods for Investment Decisions: A Literature Review," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Maria B. Chiarolla & Tiziano Angelis & Gabriele Stabile, 2022. "An analytical study of participating policies with minimum rate guarantee and surrender option," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 173-216, April.
    3. Ferrari, Giorgio & Zhu, Shihao, 2023. "Optimal Retirement Choice under Age-dependent Force of Mortality," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 683, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    4. Giorgio Ferrari & Shihao Zhu, 2023. "Optimal Retirement Choice under Age-dependent Force of Mortality," Papers 2311.12169, arXiv.org.
    5. Jason S. Anquandah & Leonid V. Bogachev, 2019. "Optimal Stopping and Utility in a Simple Model of Unemployment Insurance," Papers 1902.06175, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2019.
    6. Giorgio Ferrari & Shihao Zhu, 2022. "On a Merton Problem with Irreversible Healthcare Investment," Papers 2212.05317, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    7. Ferrari, Giorgio & Zhu, Shihao, 2022. "Consumption Descision, Portfolio Choice and Healthcare Irreversible Investment," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 671, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    8. Jason S. Anquandah & Leonid V. Bogachev, 2019. "Optimal Stopping and Utility in a Simple Modelof Unemployment Insurance," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-41, September.

    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. Maria Alexandrova & Nadine Gatzert, 2019. "What Do We Know About Annuitization Decisions?," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 57-100, March.
    2. Dadashi, Hassan, 2020. "Optimal investment–consumption problem: Post-retirement with minimum guarantee," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 160-181.
    3. Hassan Dadashi, 2018. "Optimal investment-consumption problem: post-retirement with minimum guarantee," Papers 1803.00611, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    4. Marina Di Giacinto & Bjarne Højgaard & Elena Vigna, 2010. "Optimal time of annuitization in the decumulation phase of a defined contribution pension scheme," Working Papers 2010-08, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche.
    5. Giorgio Ferrari & Shihao Zhu, 2023. "Optimal Retirement Choice under Age-dependent Force of Mortality," Papers 2311.12169, arXiv.org.
    6. Lambregts, Timo R. & Schut, Frederik T., 2020. "Displaced, disliked and misunderstood: A systematic review of the reasons for low uptake of long-term care insurance and life annuities," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    7. Calvo-Garrido, Maria del Carmen & Pascucci, Andrea & Vázquez Cendón, Carlos, 2012. "Mathematical analysis and numerical methods for pricing pension plans allowing early retirement," MPRA Paper 36494, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Habib, F. & Huang, H. & Mauskopf, A. & Nikolic, B. & Salisbury, T.S., 2020. "Optimal allocation to Deferred Income Annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 94-104.
    9. Hainaut, Donatien & Deelstra, Griselda, 2014. "Optimal timing for annuitization, based on jump diffusion fund and stochastic mortality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 124-146.
    10. F. Habib & H. Huang & A. Mauskopf & B. Nikolic & T. S. Salisbury, 2021. "Optimal allocation to deferred income annuities," Papers 2111.01234, arXiv.org.
    11. Marina Di Giacinto & Elena Vigna, 2012. "On the sub-optimality cost of immediate annuitization in DC pension funds," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 20(3), pages 497-527, September.
    12. Ferrari, Giorgio & Zhu, Shihao, 2023. "Optimal Retirement Choice under Age-dependent Force of Mortality," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 683, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    13. Robert Gazzale & Julian Jamison & Alexander Karlan & Dean Karlan, 2013. "Ambiguous Solicitation: Ambiguous Prescription," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 1002-1011, January.
    14. Wu, Shang & Stevens, Ralph & Thorp, Susan, 2015. "Cohort and target age effects on subjective survival probabilities: Implications for models of the retirement phase," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 39-56.
    15. Yawen Hwang & Shihchieh Chang & Shuhan Yang, 2012. "Measuring the consequences of pension reform applying liquidation and longevity considerations," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 243-255, September.
    16. Di Giacinto, Marina & Federico, Salvatore & Gozzi, Fausto & Vigna, Elena, 2014. "Income drawdown option with minimum guarantee," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(3), pages 610-624.
    17. Horneff, Wolfram J. & Maurer, Raimond H. & Stamos, Michael Z., 2008. "Life-cycle asset allocation with annuity markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 3590-3612, November.
    18. 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.
    19. Antoine Bommier, Francois Le Grand, "undated". "Too Risk Averse to Purchase Insurance? A Theoretical Glance at the Annuity Puzzle," Working Papers ETH-RC-12-002, ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design.
    20. Alicia H. Munnell & Gal Wettstein & Wenliang Hou, 2022. "How best to annuitize defined contribution assets?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 211-235, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Annuities; Mortality force; Optimal stopping; Free boundary problems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

    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:spr:finsto:v:23:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s00780-018-00379-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.