We use data from a large US life expectancy provider to test for asymmetric information in the secondary life insurance-or life settlements-market. We compare realized lifetimes for a subsample of settled policies relative to all (settled and nonsettled) policies, and find a positive...

Section 1035 of the current U.S. tax code allows policyholders to exchange their variable annuity policy for a similar product while maintaining tax-deferred status. When the variable annuity contains a long-term guarantee, this "lapse-and-reentry" strategy allows the policyholder to potentially...

Section 1035 of the current US tax code allows policyholders to exchange their variableannuity policy for a similar product while maintaining tax-deferred status. When the variableannuity contains a long-term guarantee, this “lapse-and-reentry” strategy allows the policyholderto potentially...

We develop a new framework for valuing health and longevity improvements that departs from conventional but unrealistic assumptions of full annuitization and deterministic health. Our framework can value the prevention of mortality and of illness, and it can quantify the effects of retirement...

We reexamine life insurance and annuity pricing during the 2008 financial crisis. In contrastwith previous research, we find that insurers sold policies at significantly elevated markups overtheir fundamental values during the crisis months and, moreover, that statutory accountingpressures had...