The total face amount of terminated life insurance in the U.S. amounts to over two trillion dollars per annum. Little known is that, instead of allowing insurance carriers to pocket the premiums paid until termination and avoid the death claim, many policyholders may realize their policies'...

We consider the issue of optimizing an insurance company's asset allocation in the context of portfolio theory when the firm needs to adhere to the market risk capital requirements of Solvency II. The discussion starts with a brief review of the standard formula and the introduction of a...