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Fair valuation of insurance contracts under Lévy process specifications

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  • Kassberger, Stefan
  • Kiesel, Rüdiger
  • Liebmann, Thomas

Abstract

The valuation of options embedded in insurance contracts using concepts from financial mathematics (in particular, from option pricing theory), typically referred to as fair valuation, has recently attracted considerable interest in academia as well as among practitioners. The aim of this article is to investigate the valuation of participating and unit-linked life insurance contracts, which are characterized by embedded rate guarantees and bonus distribution rules. In contrast to the existing literature, our approach models the dynamics of the reference portfolio by means of an exponential Lévy process. Our analysis sheds light on the impact of the dynamics of the reference portfolio on the fair contract value for several popular types of insurance policies. Moreover, it helps to assess the potential risk arising from misspecification of the stochastic process driving the reference portfolio.

Suggested Citation

  • Kassberger, Stefan & Kiesel, Rüdiger & Liebmann, Thomas, 2008. "Fair valuation of insurance contracts under Lévy process specifications," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 419-433, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:42:y:2008:i:1:p:419-433
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cummins, J. David & Miltersen, Kristian R. & Persson, Svein-Arne, 2004. "International Comparison of Interest Rate Guarantees in Life Insurance," Discussion Papers 2004/18, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
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    5. Ballotta, Laura, 2005. "A Lévy process-based framework for the fair valuation of participating life insurance contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 173-196, October.
    6. 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.
    7. Kling, Alexander & Richter, Andreas & Ru[ss], Jochen, 2007. "The interaction of guarantees, surplus distribution, and asset allocation in with-profit life insurance policies," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 164-178, January.
    8. 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.
    9. Laura Ballotta & Steven Haberman & Nan Wang, 2006. "Guarantees in With‐Profit and Unitized With‐Profit Life Insurance Contracts: Fair Valuation Problem in Presence of the Default Option," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 73(1), pages 97-121, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Markus Hess, 2018. "Cliquet option pricing in a jump-diffusion L\'{e}vy model," Papers 1810.09670, arXiv.org.
    2. Julien Chevallier & Benoît Sévi, 2014. "On the Stochastic Properties of Carbon Futures Prices," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 127-153, May.
    3. Laura Ballotta, 2009. "Pricing and capital requirements for with profit contracts: modelling considerations," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(7), pages 803-817.
    4. Olivier Le Courtois & François Quittard-Pinon, 2008. "Fair Valuation of Participating Life Insurance Contracts with Jump Risk," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 33(2), pages 106-136, December.
    5. Olivier Le Courtois & François Quittard-Pinon & Xiaoshan Su, 2020. "Pricing and hedging defaultable participating contracts with regime switching and jump risk," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(1), pages 303-339, June.
    6. Abdou Kélani & François Quittard-Pinon, 2017. "Pricing and Hedging Variable Annuities in a Lévy Market: A Risk Management Perspective," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(1), pages 209-238, March.
    7. Julien Chevallier & Stéphane Goutte, 2014. "The goodness-of-fit of the fuel-switching price using the mean-reverting Lévy jump process," Working Papers 2014-285, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    8. Julien Chevallier & Stéphane Goutte, 2017. "Estimation of Lévy-driven Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes: application to modeling of $$\hbox {CO}_2$$ CO 2 and fuel-switching," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 169-197, August.
    9. Hieber, Peter, 2017. "Cliquet-style return guarantees in a regime switching Lévy model," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 138-147.
    10. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Huang, Wei-Ling & Yin, Chun-Hao, 2013. "The dynamic interactions among the stock, bond and insurance markets," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 28-52.

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