In general, conglomeration leads to diversification of risk (the diversification benefit) and a decrease in shareholder value (the conglomerate discount). Diversification benefits in financial conglomerates are typically derived without explicitly accounting for reduced shareholder value....

The purchase of index-linked alternative risk transfer instruments can lead to basis risk, if the insurer's loss is not fully dependent on the index. One way to reduce basis risk is to additionally purchase gap insurance, which fills the gap between an insurer's actual loss and the index-linked...

The aim of this paper is to study optimal risk- and value-based management decisions regarding a non-life insurer's investment strategy by maximizing shareholder value based on preference functions, while simultaneously controlling for the ruin probability. We thereby extend previous work by...