Participating life insurance contracts are policies that provide dividends (participation bonuses) based on the insurer’s financial performance. While these products are popular, there exists a gap in the literature for the analysis of these contracts under a stochastic setting. This paper fills this gap by proposing methods to (i) determine performance bonuses, (ii) compute the fair premium of the contract, and (iii) perform risk measurements for participating contracts in a realistic stochastic environment. The specific case of a fixed premium endowment participating contract, where the annual premium remains constant while benefits increase stochastically, is considered. We extend both the variable benefits life insurance approach of Bowers et al. [9] and the compound reversionary bonus mechanism presented in Booth et al. [8] and Bacinello [2] to a stochastic financial market (including stochastic interest rates) and stochastic mortality framework. Monte Carlo simulations provide insight about the sensitivity of premiums to contract specification and the evolution over time of both benefits and risks faced by the insurer.
{"title":"Evaluation of participating endowment life insurance policies in a stochastic environment","authors":"Ramin Eghbalzadeh, Patrice Gaillardetz, Frédéric Godin","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00373-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00373-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Participating life insurance contracts are policies that provide dividends (participation bonuses) based on the insurer’s financial performance. While these products are popular, there exists a gap in the literature for the analysis of these contracts under a stochastic setting. This paper fills this gap by proposing methods to (i) determine performance bonuses, (ii) compute the fair premium of the contract, and (iii) perform risk measurements for participating contracts in a realistic stochastic environment. The specific case of a fixed premium endowment participating contract, where the annual premium remains constant while benefits increase stochastically, is considered. We extend both the variable benefits life insurance approach of Bowers et al. [9] and the compound reversionary bonus mechanism presented in Booth et al. [8] and Bacinello [2] to a stochastic financial market (including stochastic interest rates) and stochastic mortality framework. Monte Carlo simulations provide insight about the sensitivity of premiums to contract specification and the evolution over time of both benefits and risks faced by the insurer.</p>","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139518212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00372-2
Snorre Jallbjørn, Søren F. Jarner, Niels R. Hansen
Integrating epidemiological information into mortality models has the potential to improve forecasting accuracy and facilitate the assessment of preventive measures that reduce disease risk. While probabilistic models are often used for mortality forecasting, predicting how a system behaves under external manipulation requires a causal model. In this paper, we utilize the potential outcomes framework to explore how population-level mortality forecasts are affected by interventions, and discuss the assumptions and data needed to operationalize such an analysis. A unique challenge arises in population-level mortality models where common forecasting methods treat risk prevalence as an exogenous process. This approach simplifies the forecasting process but overlooks (part of) the interdependency between risk and death, limiting the model’s ability to capture selection-induced effects. Using techniques from causal mediation theory, we quantify the selection effect typically missing in studies on cause-of-death elimination and when analyzing actions that modify risk prevalence. Specifically, we decompose the total effect of an intervention into a part directly attributable to the intervention and a part due to subsequent selection. We illustrate the effects with U.S. data.
{"title":"Forecasting, interventions and selection: the benefits of a causal mortality model","authors":"Snorre Jallbjørn, Søren F. Jarner, Niels R. Hansen","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00372-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00372-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Integrating epidemiological information into mortality models has the potential to improve forecasting accuracy and facilitate the assessment of preventive measures that reduce disease risk. While probabilistic models are often used for mortality forecasting, predicting how a system behaves under external manipulation requires a causal model. In this paper, we utilize the potential outcomes framework to explore how population-level mortality forecasts are affected by interventions, and discuss the assumptions and data needed to operationalize such an analysis. A unique challenge arises in population-level mortality models where common forecasting methods treat risk prevalence as an exogenous process. This approach simplifies the forecasting process but overlooks (part of) the interdependency between risk and death, limiting the model’s ability to capture selection-induced effects. Using techniques from causal mediation theory, we quantify the selection effect typically missing in studies on cause-of-death elimination and when analyzing actions that modify risk prevalence. Specifically, we decompose the total effect of an intervention into a part directly attributable to the intervention and a part due to subsequent selection. We illustrate the effects with U.S. data.</p>","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138817186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-19DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00374-0
Abstract
We consider an empirical backtesting for the Solvency Capital Required (SCR) under Solvency II. Based on empirical facts that the Basic own Funds (BoF) can be assumed to evolve log-normally and have a much lower volatility than the corresponding equity for our test data, we make a proposal based on Earnings at Risk (EaR) that can be used to reduce the biases from overshooting SCR estimates in a prudential way.
摘要 我们考虑对偿付能力 II 要求的偿付能力资本(SCR)进行实证回溯测试。在我们的测试数据中,基本自有资金(BoF)可被假定为对数正态分布,其波动性远低于相应的权益,基于这一经验事实,我们提出了一项基于风险收益(EaR)的建议,该建议可用于以审慎的方式减少超调 SCR 估计值所产生的偏差。
{"title":"A first look back: model performance under Solvency II","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00374-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00374-0","url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>We consider an empirical backtesting for the Solvency Capital Required (SCR) under Solvency II. Based on empirical facts that the Basic own Funds (BoF) can be assumed to evolve log-normally and have a much lower volatility than the corresponding equity for our test data, we make a proposal based on Earnings at Risk (EaR) that can be used to reduce the biases from overshooting SCR estimates in a prudential way.</p>","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138741318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-07DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00371-3
Moritz Hanika
COVID-19 has affected mortality rates and financial markets worldwide. Against this background, we perform a COVID-19 stress test for life insurance, considering a joint financial and mortality shock, to evaluate the effectiveness of different risk mitigation strategies. Specifically, we conduct a model-based simulation analysis of a life insurer selling annuities and term life insurances. The analysis includes stress scenarios that are calibrated to observations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also consider new business and study the risk situation under three different risk mitigation strategies observed in practice as an immediate response to the pandemic: stopping sales, increasing premiums, or adjusting investment strategies. Results show that a life insurer’s risk situation is mainly affected in the short term, selling annuities (in addition to term life insurance) immunizes against the mortality shock, and the immediate use of risk mitigation strategies can help reduce the negative impact.
{"title":"A COVID-19 stress test for life insurance: insights into the effectiveness of different risk mitigation strategies","authors":"Moritz Hanika","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00371-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00371-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>COVID-19 has affected mortality rates and financial markets worldwide. Against this background, we perform a COVID-19 stress test for life insurance, considering a joint financial and mortality shock, to evaluate the effectiveness of different risk mitigation strategies. Specifically, we conduct a model-based simulation analysis of a life insurer selling annuities and term life insurances. The analysis includes stress scenarios that are calibrated to observations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also consider new business and study the risk situation under three different risk mitigation strategies observed in practice as an immediate response to the pandemic: stopping sales, increasing premiums, or adjusting investment strategies. Results show that a life insurer’s risk situation is mainly affected in the short term, selling annuities (in addition to term life insurance) immunizes against the mortality shock, and the immediate use of risk mitigation strategies can help reduce the negative impact.</p>","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"283 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138579318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-14DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00369-x
Matthias Reitzner
Abstract In Germany, a trend for decreasing mortality probabilities has been observed in the last 50 years, yielding an increasing life expectancy. The German Actuarial Association DAV offers a standard method for modeling this longevity trend in calculations concerning life insurance by using the life table DAV 2004R. In this note it is investigated, whether or to which extent the longevity function of the DAV 2004R can be used for calculating the expected total number of deaths in Germany.
{"title":"Longevity trend in Germany","authors":"Matthias Reitzner","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00369-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00369-x","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In Germany, a trend for decreasing mortality probabilities has been observed in the last 50 years, yielding an increasing life expectancy. The German Actuarial Association DAV offers a standard method for modeling this longevity trend in calculations concerning life insurance by using the life table DAV 2004R. In this note it is investigated, whether or to which extent the longevity function of the DAV 2004R can be used for calculating the expected total number of deaths in Germany.","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"42 12","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134954586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-08DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00370-4
Jean-François Bégin, Nikhil Kapoor, Barbara Sanders
{"title":"A new approximation of annuity prices for age–period–cohort models","authors":"Jean-François Bégin, Nikhil Kapoor, Barbara Sanders","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00370-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00370-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"62 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135341911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-08DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00367-z
Mathias Lindholm, Ronald Richman, Andreas Tsanakas, Mario V. Wüthrich
Abstract In applications of predictive modeling, such as insurance pricing, indirect or proxy discrimination is an issue of major concern. Namely, there exists the possibility that protected policyholder characteristics are implicitly inferred from non-protected ones by predictive models and are thus having an undesirable (and possibly illegal) impact on prices. A technical solution to this problem relies on building a best-estimate model using all policyholder characteristics (including protected ones) and then averaging out the protected characteristics for calculating individual prices. However, such an approach requires full knowledge of policyholders’ protected characteristics, which may in itself be problematic. Here, we address this issue by using a multi-task neural network architecture for claim predictions, which can be trained using only partial information on protected characteristics and produces prices that are free from proxy discrimination. We demonstrate the proposed method on both synthetic data and a real-world motor claims dataset, in which proxy discrimination can be observed. In both examples we find that the predictive accuracy of the multi-task network is comparable to a conventional feed-forward neural network, when the protected information is available for at least half of the insurance policies. However, the multi-task network has superior performance in the case when the protected information is known for less than half of the insurance policyholders.
{"title":"A multi-task network approach for calculating discrimination-free insurance prices","authors":"Mathias Lindholm, Ronald Richman, Andreas Tsanakas, Mario V. Wüthrich","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00367-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00367-z","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In applications of predictive modeling, such as insurance pricing, indirect or proxy discrimination is an issue of major concern. Namely, there exists the possibility that protected policyholder characteristics are implicitly inferred from non-protected ones by predictive models and are thus having an undesirable (and possibly illegal) impact on prices. A technical solution to this problem relies on building a best-estimate model using all policyholder characteristics (including protected ones) and then averaging out the protected characteristics for calculating individual prices. However, such an approach requires full knowledge of policyholders’ protected characteristics, which may in itself be problematic. Here, we address this issue by using a multi-task neural network architecture for claim predictions, which can be trained using only partial information on protected characteristics and produces prices that are free from proxy discrimination. We demonstrate the proposed method on both synthetic data and a real-world motor claims dataset, in which proxy discrimination can be observed. In both examples we find that the predictive accuracy of the multi-task network is comparable to a conventional feed-forward neural network, when the protected information is available for at least half of the insurance policies. However, the multi-task network has superior performance in the case when the protected information is known for less than half of the insurance policyholders.","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":" 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135340772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00362-4
Yevhen Havrylenko, Julia Heger
Abstract The quality of generalized linear models (GLMs), frequently used by insurance companies, depends on the choice of interacting variables. The search for interactions is time-consuming, especially for data sets with a large number of variables, depends much on expert judgement of actuaries, and often relies on visual performance indicators. Therefore, we present an approach to automating the process of finding interactions that should be added to GLMs to improve their predictive power. Our approach relies on neural networks and a model-specific interaction detection method, which is computationally faster than the traditionally used methods like Friedman’s H-Statistic or SHAP values. In numerical studies, we provide the results of our approach on artificially generated data as well as open-source data.
{"title":"Detection of interacting variables for generalized linear models via neural networks","authors":"Yevhen Havrylenko, Julia Heger","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00362-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00362-4","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The quality of generalized linear models (GLMs), frequently used by insurance companies, depends on the choice of interacting variables. The search for interactions is time-consuming, especially for data sets with a large number of variables, depends much on expert judgement of actuaries, and often relies on visual performance indicators. Therefore, we present an approach to automating the process of finding interactions that should be added to GLMs to improve their predictive power. Our approach relies on neural networks and a model-specific interaction detection method, which is computationally faster than the traditionally used methods like Friedman’s H-Statistic or SHAP values. In numerical studies, we provide the results of our approach on artificially generated data as well as open-source data.","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"41 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135325630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-29DOI: 10.1007/s13385-023-00365-1
Matteo Cattaneo, Ron S. Kenett, Elisa Luciano
{"title":"Adversarial AI in insurance: an overview","authors":"Matteo Cattaneo, Ron S. Kenett, Elisa Luciano","doi":"10.1007/s13385-023-00365-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13385-023-00365-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44305,"journal":{"name":"European Actuarial Journal","volume":"109 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136134588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}