IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2609.01323.html

Adaptive singular-point method for pricing and hedging surrenderable equity-linked contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Molent
  • Marcellino Gaudenzi

Abstract

We propose a deterministic numerical method for pricing and hedging surrenderable equity-linked life-insurance contracts with periodic premiums and fund contributions, maturity and death guarantees, and Bermudan surrender under correlated stochastic volatility and stochastic interest rates. The main computational challenge is the non-recombining accumulated fund, which couples with multiple stochastic factors and early exercise. Our key idea is to avoid a full multidimensional fund lattice: variance and interest-rate factors are discretized on recombining lattices, while at each factor node the contract value is represented as an adaptive one-dimensional function of the fund. Periodic contributions then act as translations of the fund argument, whereas surrender is handled directly through a backward obstacle condition. Piecewise-cubic representations propagate payoff and exercise singularities and are compressed by continuous pruning criteria that control the representation error. We establish weak convergence of the financial chains, convergence of the adaptive valuation under vanishing representation error, and Delta consistency on regular fund regions. For the strict binomial scheme, additional regularity yields first-order weak accuracy and a Talay-Tubaro expansion supporting Richardson extrapolation. Numerical experiments show compact representations, favorable cost--accuracy, and close agreement with independent Monte Carlo and cross-fitted least-squares Monte Carlo benchmarks. Hedging results further show that contracts with similar values can generate materially different exposures to equity, volatility, and interest-rate risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Molent & Marcellino Gaudenzi, 2026. "Adaptive singular-point method for pricing and hedging surrenderable equity-linked contracts," Papers 2609.01323, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2609.01323
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.01323
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Longstaff, Francis A & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 2001. "Valuing American Options by Simulation: A Simple Least-Squares Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 113-147.
    2. Li, Chenxu & Wu, Linjia, 2019. "Exact simulation of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck driven stochastic volatility model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(2), pages 768-779.
    3. Damiano Brigo & Fabio Mercurio, 2001. "A deterministic-shift extension of analytically-tractable and time-homogeneous short-rate models," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 369-387.
    4. Costabile, Massimo & Gaudenzi, Marcellino & Massabò, Ivar & Zanette, Antonino, 2009. "Evaluating fair premiums of equity-linked policies with surrender option in a bivariate model," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 286-295, October.
    5. Aase Nielsen, J. & Sandmann, Klaus, 1995. "Equity-linked life insurance: A model with stochastic interest rates," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 225-253, July.
    6. Francine Diener & MARC Diener, 2004. "Asymptotics of the price oscillations of a European call option in a tree model," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 271-293, April.
    7. Goudenège, Ludovic & Molent, Andrea & Zanette, Antonino, 2026. "Robust pricing of equity-Indexed annuities under uncertain volatility and stochastic interest rate," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Ludovic Goudenege & Andrea Molent & Xiao Wei & Antonino Zanette, 2025. "Enhancing valuation of variable annuities in Lévy models with stochastic interest rate," Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2025(2), pages 213-235, February.
    10. Bacinello, Anna Rita, 2005. "Endogenous model of surrender conditions in equity-linked life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 270-296, October.
    11. Shen, Weixi & Xu, Huiping, 2005. "The valuation of unit-linked policies with or without surrender options," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 79-92, February.
    12. Brennan, Michael J. & Schwartz, Eduardo S., 1976. "The pricing of equity-linked life insurance policies with an asset value guarantee," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 195-213, June.
    13. Anna Rita Bacinello & Enrico Biffis & Pietro Millossovich, 2010. "Regression-based algorithms for life insurance contracts with surrender guarantees," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(9), pages 1077-1090.
    14. Goudenège, Ludovic & Molent, Andrea & Zanette, Antonino, 2016. "Pricing and hedging GLWB in the Heston and in the Black–Scholes with stochastic interest rate models," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 38-57.
    15. Costabile, Massimo & Massabó, Ivar & Russo, Emilio, 2008. "A binomial model for valuing equity-linked policies embedding surrender options," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 873-886, June.
    16. Cox, John C. & Ingersoll Junior, Jonathan E. & Ross, Stephen A., 2007. "A theory of the term structure of interest rates," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 47(2), April.
    17. Brignone, Riccardo & Junike, Gero, 2026. "Exact simulation of stochastic volatility models based on conditional Fourier-cosine method," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 328(3), pages 1036-1053.
    18. Longstaff, Francis A & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 2001. "Valuing American Options by Simulation: A Simple Least-Squares Approach," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt43n1k4jb, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    19. Kang, Boda & Ziveyi, Jonathan, 2018. "Optimal surrender of guaranteed minimum maturity benefits under stochastic volatility and interest rates," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 43-56.
    20. Heston, Steven L, 1993. "A Closed-Form Solution for Options with Stochastic Volatility with Applications to Bond and Currency Options," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(2), pages 327-343.
    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. Belssing Taruvinga, 2019. "Solving Selected Problems on American Option Pricing with the Method of Lines," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4-2019, January-A.
    2. 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.
    3. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    4. Maya Briani & Lucia Caramellino & Antonino Zanette, 2013. "A hybrid approach for the implementation of the Heston model," Papers 1307.7178, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2017.
    5. Kevin Fergusson & Eckhard Platen, 2013. "Real World Pricing of Long Term Cash-Linked Annuities and Equity-Linked Annuities with Cash-Linked Guarantees," Research Paper Series 338, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    6. 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.
    7. Li, Jing & Szimayer, Alexander, 2010. "The effect of policyholders' rationality on unit-linked life insurance contracts with surrender guarantees," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 22/2010, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    8. Kang, Boda & Ziveyi, Jonathan, 2018. "Optimal surrender of guaranteed minimum maturity benefits under stochastic volatility and interest rates," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 43-56.
    9. Thomas Poufinas, 2015. "On the pricing of regular premium variable annuities using options," International Journal of Financial Markets and Derivatives, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1), pages 54-77.
    10. Maya Briani & Lucia Caramellino & Giulia Terenzi & Antonino Zanette, 2019. "Numerical Stability Of A Hybrid Method For Pricing Options," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(07), pages 1-46, November.
    11. Costabile, Massimo & Gaudenzi, Marcellino & Massabò, Ivar & Zanette, Antonino, 2009. "Evaluating fair premiums of equity-linked policies with surrender option in a bivariate model," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 286-295, October.
    12. Eckhard Platen, 2009. "Real World Pricing of Long Term Contracts," Research Paper Series 262, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    13. Gan, Guojun, 2013. "Application of data clustering and machine learning in variable annuity valuation," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 795-801.
    14. Zaglauer, Katharina & Bauer, Daniel, 2008. "Risk-neutral valuation of participating life insurance contracts in a stochastic interest rate environment," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 29-40, August.
    15. Bernard, Carole & Boyle, Phelim P., 2011. "A Natural Hedge for Equity Indexed Annuities," Annals of Actuarial Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 211-230, September.
    16. O. Samimi & Z. Mardani & S. Sharafpour & F. Mehrdoust, 2017. "LSM Algorithm for Pricing American Option Under Heston–Hull–White’s Stochastic Volatility Model," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 173-187, August.
    17. Hainaut, Donatien & Akbaraly, Adnane, 2023. "Risk management with Local Least Squares Monte-Carlo," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2023003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    18. Kolkiewicz, A. W. & Tan, K. S., 2006. "Unit-Linked Life Insurance Contracts with Lapse Rates Dependent on Economic Factors," Annals of Actuarial Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 49-78, March.
    19. Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy, 2010. "A fast Fourier transform technique for pricing American options under stochastic volatility," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, April.
    20. Duffie, Darrell, 2003. "Intertemporal asset pricing theory," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 639-742, Elsevier.

    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:2609.01323. 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: https://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.