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Mortality Risk and Its Effect on Shortfall and Risk Management in Life Insurance

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  • Nadine Gatzert
  • Hannah Wesker

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> Mortality risk is a key risk factor for life insurance companies and can have a crucial impact on its risk situation. In general, mortality risk can be divided into different subcategories, among them unsystematic risk, adverse selection, and systematic risk. In addition, basis risk may arise in case of hedging, for example, longevity risk. The aim of this article is to holistically analyze the impact of these different types of mortality risk on the risk situation and the risk management of a life insurer. Toward this end, we extend previous models of adverse selection, empirically calibrate mortality rates, and study the interaction among the mortality risk components in the case of an insurer holding a portfolio of annuities and term life insurance contracts. For risk management, we examine natural hedging and mortality contingent bonds. Our results show that particularly adverse selection and basis risk can have crucial impact not only on the effectiveness of mortality contingent bonds, but also on the insurer's risk level, especially when a portfolio consists of several types of products.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadine Gatzert & Hannah Wesker, 2014. "Mortality Risk and Its Effect on Shortfall and Risk Management in Life Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 81(1), pages 57-90, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:81:y:2014:i:1:p:57-90
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    Cited by:

    1. Tat Wing Wong & Mei Choi Chiu & Hoi Ying Wong, 2017. "Managing Mortality Risk With Longevity Bonds When Mortality Rates Are Cointegrated," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(3), pages 987-1023, September.
    2. Enrico Biffis & David Blake & Lorenzo Pitotti & Ariel Sun, 2016. "The Cost of Counterparty Risk and Collateralization in Longevity Swaps," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 83(2), pages 387-419, June.
    3. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Racial disparities in life insurance coverage," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 94-107, January.
    4. Katja Schilling & Daniel Bauer & Marcus C. Christiansen & Alexander Kling, 2020. "Decomposing Dynamic Risks into Risk Components," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5738-5756, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Torben M. Andersen & Marias H. Gestsson, 2021. "Annuitization and aggregate mortality risk," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 79-99, March.
    7. Michael McCrea & Mark Farrell, 2018. "A Conceptual Model for Pricing Health and Life Insurance Using Wearable Technology," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 21(3), pages 389-411, December.
    8. Andy Wong & Michael Sherris & Ralph Stevens, 2017. "Natural Hedging Strategies for Life Insurers: Impact of Product Design and Risk Measure," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(1), pages 153-175, March.

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