IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2405.02115.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On variable annuities with surrender charges

Author

Listed:
  • Tiziano De Angelis
  • Alessandro Milazzo
  • Gabriele Stabile

Abstract

In this paper we provide a theoretical analysis of Variable Annuities with a focus on the holder's right to an early termination of the contract. We obtain a rigorous pricing formula and the optimal exercise boundary for the surrender option. We also illustrate our theoretical results with extensive numerical experiments. The pricing problem is formulated as an optimal stopping problem with a time-dependent payoff which is discontinuous at the maturity of the contract and non-smooth. This structure leads to non-monotonic optimal stopping boundaries which we prove nevertheless to be continuous and regular in the sense of diffusions for the stopping set. The lack of monotonicity of the boundary makes it impossible to use classical methods from optimal stopping. Also more recent results about Lipschitz continuous boundaries are not applicable in our setup. Thus, we contribute a new methodology for non-monotone stopping boundaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiziano De Angelis & Alessandro Milazzo & Gabriele Stabile, 2024. "On variable annuities with surrender charges," Papers 2405.02115, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2405.02115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.02115
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Hilpert, 2020. "The Effect of Risk Aversion and Loss Aversion on Equity‐Linked Life Insurance With Surrender Guarantees," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 87(3), pages 665-687, September.
    2. Jing Li & Alexander Szimayer, 2014. "The effect of policyholders' rationality on unit-linked life insurance contracts with surrender guarantees," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 327-342, February.
    3. Laura Ballotta & Ernst Eberlein & Thorsten Schmidt & Raghid Zeineddine, 2020. "Variable annuities in a Lévy-based hybrid model with surrender risk," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 867-886, May.
    4. David Landriault & Bin Li & Dongchen Li & Yumin Wang, 2021. "High‐water mark fee structure in variable annuities," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 1057-1094, December.
    5. Goran Peskir, 2005. "A Change-of-Variable Formula with Local Time on Curves," Journal of Theoretical Probability, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 499-535, July.
    6. Russo, Vincenzo & Giacometti, Rosella & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2017. "Intensity-based framework for surrender modeling in life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 189-196.
    7. Anne MacKay & Maciej Augustyniak & Carole Bernard & Mary R. Hardy, 2017. "Risk Management of Policyholder Behavior in Equity-Linked Life Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(2), pages 661-690, June.
    8. Domenico De Giovanni, 2010. "Lapse rate modeling: a rational expectation approach," Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2010(1), pages 56-67.
    9. 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.
    10. Tiziano Angelis & Gabriele Stabile, 2019. "On the free boundary of an annuity purchase," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 97-137, January.
    11. Bernard, Carole & MacKay, Anne & Muehlbeyer, Max, 2014. "Optimal surrender policy for variable annuity guarantees," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 116-128.
    12. Goran Peskir, 2005. "On The American Option Problem," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 169-181, January.
    13. J. Lars Kirkby & Jean-Philippe Aguilar, 2023. "Valuation and optimal surrender of variable annuities with guaranteed minimum benefits and periodic fees," Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2023(6), pages 624-654, July.
    14. 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)

    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. Wang, Gu & Zou, Bin, 2021. "Optimal fee structure of variable annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PB), pages 587-601.
    2. 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.
    3. Giorgio Ferrari & Shihao Zhu, 2023. "Optimal Retirement Choice under Age-dependent Force of Mortality," Papers 2311.12169, arXiv.org.
    4. Feng, Runhuan & Jing, Xiaochen & Ng, Kenneth Tsz Hin, 2025. "Optimal investment-withdrawal strategy for variable annuities under a performance fee structure," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Huang, Yiming & Mamon, Rogemar & Xiong, Heng, 2022. "Valuing guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits by a change of numéraire approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-26.
    6. 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.
    7. Zhang, Zhimin & Zhong, Wei, 2024. "Efficient valuation of guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits in regime switching jump diffusion models with lapse risk," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 478(C).
    8. Buonaguidi, B., 2023. "An optimal sequential procedure for determining the drift of a Brownian motion among three values," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 320-349.
    9. Johnson, P. & Pedersen, J.L. & Peskir, G. & Zucca, C., 2022. "Detecting the presence of a random drift in Brownian motion," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1068-1090.
    10. Zhenyu Cui & Anne MacKay & Marie-Claude Vachon, 2022. "Analysis of VIX-linked fee incentives in variable annuities via continuous-time Markov chain approximation," Papers 2207.14793, arXiv.org.
    11. Abel Azze & Bernardo D'Auria & Eduardo Garc'ia-Portugu'es, 2022. "Optimal exercise of American options under time-dependent Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes," Papers 2211.04095, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    12. Basei, Matteo & Ferrari, Giorgio & Rodosthenous, Neofytos, 2023. "Uncertainty over Uncertainty in Environmental Policy Adoption: Bayesian Learning of Unpredictable Socioeconomic Costs," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 677, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    13. 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.
    14. Azze, A. & D’Auria, B. & García-Portugués, E., 2024. "Optimal stopping of an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck bridge," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    15. Kouritzin, Michael A. & MacKay, Anne, 2018. "VIX-linked fees for GMWBs via explicit solution simulation methods," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-17.
    16. Basei, Matteo & Ferrari, Giorgio & Rodosthenous, Neofytos, 2024. "Uncertainty over uncertainty in environmental policy adoption: Bayesian learning of unpredictable socioeconomic costs," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. Tiziano Angelis & Gabriele Stabile, 2019. "On the free boundary of an annuity purchase," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 97-137, January.
    18. Cheng, Chunli & Hilpert, Christian & Miri Lavasani, Aidin & Schaefer, Mick, 2023. "Surrender contagion in life insurance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(3), pages 1465-1479.
    19. Philippe Artzner & Karl‐Theodor Eisele & Thorsten Schmidt, 2024. "Insurance–finance arbitrage," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 739-773, July.
    20. Moenig, Thorsten, 2021. "Variable annuities: Market incompleteness and policyholder behavior," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-78.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:2405.02115. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.