Investment guarantees in unit-linked life insurance from the customer perspective

Interest rate guarantees are a typical contract feature in unit-linked-life insurance products. As the financial crisis of 2007/2008 has shown, these guarantees can be of substantial value for policyholders since they ensure that at least a minimum amount will be paid back even if the mutual fund value falls below a specific guaranteed level. However, from the insurance company’s view, these guarantees can be costly—especially in highly volatile markets—due to the required risk management measures which must be undertaken to secure the guarantees promised to the customers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate whether customers really value these guarantees and if their willingness to pay (WTP) is sufficient to cover the guarantee costs. To elicit customer WTP, we use an online questionnaire and compare these results to the actual guarantee costs calculated with the Black and Scholes option pricing formula. One main finding is that even though most of the participants in the online questionnaire work in the financial industry, subjective prices are difficult to derive and are lower, on average, than the prices obtained using a financial pricing model. However, many participants are still willing to pay a substantially higher price.     

投连险与基金信息披露的比较分析

与国际通行做法相比,我国投连险投资账户多履行了一个资产组合管理职能,这就使得投连险投资账户与基金具有了一定的可比性。本文基于投连险与基金信息披露的比较视角,指出了我国投连险信息披露存在的问题,并从保险公司、监管部门、社会力量三个方面提出了相应的对策。     

Adaptation and change in the Australian life insurance industry: an historical perspective

In the wake of the deregulation of the financial sector in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s the life insurance industry has undergone a period of rapid change and reorganisation. Part of this adjustment has been the move towards the integration of financial service provision and the rise of bancassurance. This paper investigates the strategies adopted by Australian life insurers as they moved into the increasingly competitive environment triggered by the lifting of government restrictions on banking practices. It compares the approach of life insurers with that adopted in an earlier period of expansion and change. During the 1950s and 1960s an influx of foreign owned insurance companies into the Australian market precipitated the diversification of domestic life insurers into other insurance markets. The catalyst for change in both cases was the change in information costs brought about by the change in the competitive environment. The experience of the Australian life insurance market would suggest that there is a link between changing information costs and changing organisational structures. However this link is circumscribed by the institutional environment.     

Drawdown analysis for the renewal insurance risk process

In this paper, we study some drawdown-related quantities in the context of the renewal insurance risk process with general interarrival times and phase-type distributed jump sizes. We make use of some recent results on the two-sided exit problem for the spectrally negative Markov additive process and a fluid flow analogy between certain queues and risk processes to solve for the two-sided exit problem of the renewal insurance risk process. The two-sided exit quantities are later shown to be central to the analysis of drawdown quantities including the drawdown time, the drawdown size, the running maximum (minimum) at the drawdown time, the last running maximum time prior to drawdown, the number of jumps before drawdown and the number of excursions from running maximum before drawdown. Finally, we consider another application of our methodology for the study of the expected discounted dividend payments until ruin.     

Forging relationships with services: The antecedents that have an impact on behavioural outcomes in the life insurance industry

The extent to which service quality is linked to satisfaction, value and behavioural outcomes continues to be debated in the literature. This research investigated two models involving the linkages between service quality, satisfaction, perceived value, repurchase intention and willingness to recommend to others. The life insurance industry was chosen as the industry for investigation since it is virtually a pure service with little tangibility and high credence properties. Data were collected in Singapore in response to concerns about broadening understanding of these variables cross-culturally. Results of path analysis indicate that service quality has an indirect relationship with behavioural outcome measures via satisfaction and value. The study found that satisfaction was positively associated with customers' re-purchase intentions but its relationship with customers' willingness to recommend to others was relatively weak. This finding has important marketing implications as word-of-mouth has previously been found to have significant influence on customers' purchase decisions.     

现收现付制养老保险风险量化及应对策略

现收现付制养老保险是一种代际转移的制度,其可持续发展的经济学基础为生产力、工资和人口三者的综合增长因素能够维持代际转移,从而保证人们退休后能够维持稳定的工资替代率。这三种因素的波动形成了一定的风险。如何量化和管理这些风险是本文的研究主题。本文将给出代际人口比例和代际工资比例满足的随机微分方程。基于此,考虑在给定缴费比例和工资替代率条件下,养老保险计划出现支付危机的概率分布。进而,为了寻找风险与收益的平衡,研究现收现付制养老保险的VaR。最后,利用中国的实际统计数据,对本文的理论结果给予实证阐述,并提出应对的策略。     

VaR模型及其在寿险公司风险管理中的应用

随着保险产品的创新、竞争的加剧及金融市场的发展,我国寿险公司面临的风险将更为复杂和多样,如何对这些风险进行有效管理是寿险公司面临的重要难题,而VaR模型作为当前国际金融风险管理和金融监管的主流方法,含有丰富的风险管理思想,故对VaR模型进行研究并探讨其在我国寿险公司风险管理中的应用具有一定的现实意义。本文分析了寿险公司应用VaR模型时需注意的问题,并指出我国寿险公司建立基于VaR的风险管理体系需在公司治理结构、风险管理组织架构、风险管理技术、风险数据库等方面加以完善。     

Interaction effects between dynamic hybrid products and traditional deferred annuities in the German life insurance market

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management - Dynamic hybrid products emerged in 2007 and are now well established in the German life insurance market. In this article, we study interaction effects...     

Perceived risk and e-banking services: An analysis from the perspective of the consumer

This research investigates the premise that purchasing e-banking services is perceived to be riskier than purchasing traditional banking services. Unlike previous studies on perceived risk that typically focused on the relationship of perceived risk and information search, this exploratory study examines the dynamics of perceived risk throughout the various stages of the consumer buying process. A survey of 159 respondents reveals a risk premium for e-banking services that follows a systematic pattern throughout the consumer buying process. When viewed as a dynamic process, perceived risk for e-banking services shows more radical changes in risk levels than traditional banking services. The analyses indicate that financial risk drives the risk premium while psychological, physical and time risk play ancillary roles as risk drivers at certain stages of the consumer buying process. A major implication of this study is that there is a risk premium for e-banking services and the risk premium permeates all stages of the consumer buying process. Risk mitigation strategies are addressed.     

寿险公司负债价值计量研究

有效的资产负债管理以寿险公司资产和负债价值的正确计量为基础。寿险负债的长期性和多种嵌入期权的特性使寿险公司资产负债管理更具复杂性。寿险负债价值计量的精算方法注重于它的死亡率风险测定的技术秘诀和期限的长期性,但该方法使期权的效应无从体现,也使在利率和被保险人行为的静态假设不成立的前提下,负债价值被低估的情况发生。因此,必须辅之于财务方法来测量期权在寿险合约中的价值。本文对寿险合约中期权价值的测量及其对ALM的作用也做了探讨。     

Optimal insurance with background risk: An analysis of general dependence structures

Finance and Stochastics - In this paper, we consider an optimal insurance problem from the perspective of a risk-averse individual who faces an insurable risk as well as some background risk and...     

基于战略风险管理模式下的养老保险公司风险管理分析

战略风险管理模式是金融企业比较流行的一种全面风险管理模型。本文在分析养老保险公司业务经营及风险管理特殊性的基础上,应用战略风险管理基本思想,提出了当前形势下养老保险公司风险管理的核心问题,并对公司目前面临的风险类别、风险因素以及风险管控措施进行了分析研究。     

Utilizing NT-proBNP in the selection of risks for life insurance

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a counter-regulatory hormone produced mainly by ventricular myocardium. Early research studies were performed to ascertain its value in the diagnosis of congestive heart failure in acute care settings. Subsequent studies have explored its utility in screening for asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction in the community, determining prognosis in coronary artery disease, appropriate timing of surgery in valve disorders, and in evaluating many other cardiac diseases. This review summarizes the current status of medical literature, introduces a new test to the insurance industry.     

Uniqueness of the fair premium for equity-linked life insurance contracts

An equity-linked life insurance contract combines an endowment life insurance and an investment strategy with a minimum guarantee. The benefit of this contract is determined by the guaranteed amount plus a bonus equal to a call on the portfolio. This bonus is similar to an Asian option. This article analyzes the relationship between the periodic insurance premium and its proportional share invested into the portfolio. For a general model of the financial risks we show the existence and uniqueness of an insurance premium. Furthermore the premium is strictly increasing and convex as a function of the share invested.     

Regulatory competition and forbearance: Evidence from the life insurance industry

Regulatory separation theory indicates that a system with multiple regulators leads to less forbearance and limits producer gains while a model of banking regulation developed by Dell’Ariccia and Marquez (2006) predicts the opposite. Fragmented regulation of the US life insurance industry provides an especially rich environment for testing the effects of regulatory competition. We find positive relations between regulatory competition and profitability measures for this industry, which is consistent with the Dell’Ariccia and Marquez model. Our results have practical implications for the debate over federal versus state regulation of insurance and financial services in the US.     

An analysis of the antecedents of satisfaction for superannuation fund members

The factors influencing the satisfaction of superannuation fund members are poorly understood at present, due to a paucity of research. This study looks at the relative influence that five key aspects of the superannuation offering of a mid-size Australian Superannuation Fund have on overall satisfaction. A survey of 500 members suggests that despite the long-term nature of the product and efforts to educate members to think otherwise, short-term financial performance remains a strong influence on member satisfaction levels. Furthermore, the strong focus on short-term returns mean that many of the favourable actions undertaken by this fund were comparatively unimportant to members. With financial returns varying annually and to a large degree being out of the control of fund managers, the focus of members on this aspect as the main influence on satisfaction levels is problematic. The evidence suggests that shifting the focus of members towards longer period assessments (eg returns over the past five years) and towards aspects of the funds' offering that are points of differentiation (eg enquiry handling) is the only way to prevent large, uncontrollable fluctuations in satisfaction levels and possible defections.     

Prognostic features of menopausal and postmenopausal applicants for life insurance

The increasing proportion of the aged in the population is posing significant new challenges to politics, society and medicine as well. Gerontology and geriatrics are playing a role in all areas of preventive and curative medicine. Since the life expectancy of women is approximately eight years longer than that of men, gynecology draws special significance from the fact that the greater part of an aging society will primarily be comprise of women. The medical treatment and care of women in climacteric and postmenopause in the past is seriously inadequate by today's standards. The attitude in earlier years of not making any great investment of cost or personnel in patients over 75 can, in view of the vitality of modern-day senior citizens, no longer be justified or maintained. The necessity of establishing old-age gynecology becomes more and more clear and urgent. The decrease of ovarian function in menopause is without doubt an important turning point in the life of a woman. The first signs of aging are inescapable. Following these years a woman still has more than one third of life expectancy ahead of her which she would like to and should spend in good mental, spiritual and physical health. The principle of postmenopausal hormone replacement has shown itself to be amazingly successful in treating climacteric disorders and their effects on the entire organism. Treatment over many years with as board a spectrum as possible of preventive hormones to combat the long-term consequences of hormone deficiency, like osteoporosis-related fractures, heart attacks, or strokes, is one of the great medical advances of our time. Furthermore, the significance of preventing a number of genital concern manifestations through hormone replacement therapy cannot be overestimated. Gynecology has taken a remarkable step toward its goal of enabling aging women to spend the third part of their lives free of unnecessary diseases and suffering. In 1994, after consultation with representatives of European countries during the World Congress of the International Menopause Society, a statement was published by the menopause society of German-speaking countries. In this consensus paper, a stand was taken on hormone replacement therapy in postmenopause. The purpose of this paper was to serve as an aid in formulating and interpreting the text in the package inserts that are enclosed with hormone preparations. The most important passages were to once again summarize the present status of knowledge on hormone replacement therapy and its risks and benefits: (Estradiol is the estrogen normally produced by a woman's ovaries that exercises all functions of the natural follicle hormone. It is used to treat all symptoms of estrogen deficiency). Estrogen eliminates, or mitigates, all typical symptoms of estrogen deficiency in menopause, including hot flashes, night sweats and other complaints frequently observed like nervousness, sleep disturbance and depression, with great reliability. Estrogen stimulates the cell division of an aging organism, of mucous membranes, of supportive and connective tissue. It improves the blood circulation and the salt and water content. Furthermore, estrogen prevents or eliminates deterioration in the urogenital area and the disorders that result from such deterioration. Estrogen prevents or retards bone deterioration, osteoporosis and spinal, lower arm and femur fractures. By positively influencing HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, blood vessels and circulation, long-term estrogen replacement inhibits the development of arteriosclerosis and nearly halves the frequency of heart attacks and strokes. The mortality rate of women over 50 is therefore decreased significantly and life expectancy increased. (Benefits to the blood vessels of such preventive treatment can already be seen after five years of estrogen therapy and their benefits continue for several years after treatment is stopped.     

Price satisfaction and personnel efficiency as antecedents of overall satisfaction from consumer credit products and positive word of mouth

The paper aims to explore the potential impact of ‘bank personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ on overall customer satisfaction of consumer credit products and positive word of mouth (WOM). Furthermore it aims to provide bank managers with useful insights into the development of high quality relationships with customers. ‘Personnel efficiency’, is related to the human factor of service quality, while ‘price satisfaction’ refers to the customers’ subjective view of the bank's pricing policy. The research involved a review of the available literature on service quality dimensions and their effect on satisfaction and WOM. For the collection of data, a survey was designed and conducted in the greater area of Athens, Greece. The research questionnaire was administered by means of personal interviews to 750 bank customers. Data analysis, using structural equation modelling, suggests that ‘personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ are antecedents of overall ‘customer satisfaction’, which is a prerequisite for positive ‘word of mouth’.     

产业链视角的保险专业代理发展路径探析

保险专业代理自本世纪初以来得到迅速发展,但尚未成为保险销售的主渠道。新时代产业链发展方式的转变,必然是各主体调整定位,将保险与保险中介归整于供应商、总包商、分销商,以互惠互补原则,一同面对市场竞争,形成供应商、总包商、顾客三位一体的全新市场格局。保险业渠道整合势在必行,保险专业代理的发展必须顺应潮流,以渠道体系构建为目标,进行资源的集约化整合,并注重夯实基础的内涵式扩张,核心是以股份制改造为基础的资本与人才的积累发展。