Abstract This paper discusses the effects of the present low interest rate environment on the German life insurance industry. By referring to a recent study of the “International Center for Insurance Regulation”, we assess insolvency probabilities for life insurers with different capital...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how an insurance company can maximize the policyholder’s utility by setting the level of the interest rate guarantee in line with his preferences. Design/methodology/approach: The authors develop a general model of life insurance, taking...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine optimal pooling strategies from the perspective of an insurer's shareholders underlying a default probability driven premium loading and convex price-demand functions. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use an option pricing framework for...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of industry loss warranties (ILWs), an alternative risk transfer instrument which has become increasingly popular throughout the last few years. Design/methodology/approach – The authors first point out key characteristics...

Purpose – Definitions of pooling effects in insurance companies may convey the impression that the achieved risk reduction effect will be beneficial for policyholders, since typically lower premiums are paid for the same safety level with an increasing number of insureds, or a higher safety...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the risk of misspecifying solvency models for insurance companies. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a basic solvency model, the authors examine the sensitivity of different risk measures with respect to model misspecification. An analysis...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze what transaction costs are acceptable for customers in different investments. In this study, two life insurance contracts, a mutual fund and a risk-free investment, as alternative investment forms are considered. The first two products under...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper paper is to study effective measures in dealing with the phenomenon of insurance claims’ fraud. In fact, fraud is one of the major industry concerns. It occurs in all classes of insurance and accounts for a substantial portion of indemnity payments each...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how the discretization interval affects the solvency measurement of a property-liability insurance company. Design/methodology/approach Starting with a basic solvency model, the authors study the impact of the discretization interval on risk...