Participating life insurance contracts typically contain various types of implicit options. These implicit options can be very valuable and can thus represent a sig-nificant risk to the insurance companies issuing these contracts in case of in-sufficient risk management. Options can get...

We study the valuation of unit-linked life insurance contracts with surrender guarantees. Instead of solving an optimal stopping problem, we propose a more realistic approach accounting for policyholders’ rationality in exercising their surrender option. The valuation is conducted at the...

We analyse contracts which pay out a guaranteed minimum rate of return and a fraction of a positive excess rate, which is specified on the basis of a benchmark portfolio. These contracts are closely related to unit--linked life--insurance/savings plan products and can be considered as...

We study the valuation and hedging of unit-linked life insurance contracts in a setting where mortality intensity is governed by a stochastic process. We focus on model risk arising from different specifications for the mortality intensity. To do so we assume that the mortality intensity is...

Common features in life insurance contracts are an interest rate guarantee andpolicyholder participation in the returns of insurers’ reference portfolio, which canbe of substantial value. The aim of this paper is to analyze the model risk involvedin pricing and risk assessment that arises from...

In this paper, we investigate the impact of different asset management and surplus distributionstrategies in life insurance on risk-neutral pricing and shortfall risk. In general,these feedback mechanisms affect the contract’s payoff and hence directly influence pricingand risk measurement. To...

Most life insurance contracts embed the right to stop premium payments during the termof the contract (paid-up option). Thereby, the contract is not terminated but continueswith reduced benefits and often provides the right to resume premium payments later,thus increasing the previously reduced...

Fair pricing of embedded options in life insurance contracts is usually conducted by using risk-neutral valuation. This pricing framework assumes a perfect hedging strategy, which insurance companies can hardly pursue in practice. In this paper, we extend the risk-neutral valuation concept with...

We study the valuation and hedging of unit-linked life insurance contracts in a setting where mortality intensity is governed by a stochastic process. We focus on model risk arising from different specifications for the mortality intensity. To do so we assume that the mortality intensity is...

We study the effect of secondary markets on equity-linked life insurance contracts with surrender guarantees. The policyholders are assumed to be boundedly rational in giving up their contracts, and a proportion of policyholders will access the secondary markets instead of surrendering the...