The retirement wealth of the baby boom generation

The paper compares the well-being of the baby boom generation (ages 40-55) in 2001 with the same age group in 1983. I find little evidence that their relative position deteriorated over the period. By some indicators, this generation has seen an improvement. In terms of income, the 40-55 age group was at about the same relative position in 2001 as in 1983. In terms of conventional wealth, there was some slippage over the period. In terms of mean augmented wealth (net worth plus pension and Social Security wealth), their relative position improved somewhat but in terms of median augmented wealth there was again some slippage.     

Understanding the motivations of long-term care insurance owners: the importance of retirement planning

This article is based on two recent reports by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) that illuminate the reasons why individuals purchase private long-term care insurance in both the group and individual markets. This information suggests that a younger and more diverse group of individuals are becoming increasingly interested in private long-term care insurance and that workplace education linkage the purchase of long-term care insurance to retirement planning may promote coverage.     

Seven myths of financial planning and baby boomer retirement

Myths are tales that combine fact and fiction. Commonly shared business myths help provide the foundation for underlying beliefs about what is important, what matters to the customer, and explain or justify business practices. While myths can be a means to structure information and knowledge, they can also be barrier to innovation in a changing market. The changing demographics in all industrialised markets and the coming retirement of the baby boom generation pose challenges to seven commonly accepted myths among financial planners about who customers are, what they want and the most effective ways to deliver service value. This paper examines these widely held ‘industry beliefs’ and suggests strategies that product developers and planners might consider to improve practice management and to grow new business in an ageing marketplace.     

Social security, life insurance and annuities for families

In this paper we ask whether an aspect of social security, namely its role as a provider of insurance against uncertain life spans, is welfare enhancing. To this end we use an OLG model where agents have a bequest motive and differ in sex and marital status and where families are formed and destroyed and their characteristics evolve (exogenously) according to U.S. demographic patterns of marriage, divorce, fertility and mortality. We compare the implications of social security under a variety of market structures that differ in the extent to which life insurance and annuities are available. We find that social security is a bad idea. In economies where the private sector provides annuities and life insurance, it is a bad idea for the standard reason that it distorts the intertemporal margin by lowering the capital stock. In the absence of such securities social security is still a very bad idea, only marginally less so compared with economies with annuities and life insurance. We also explore these issues in a world where people live longer and we find no differences in our answers. As a by-product of our analysis we find that the existence of life insurance opportunities for people is important in welfare terms while that of annuities is not.     

保险信息化进程中的信息安全管理

随着保险信息化建设的不断推进,信息系统已经成为保险公司经营管理的核心组成部分。信息安全风险直接影响到保险公司提供诚信服务和稳健经营的能力,个别重大的信息安全事故或案件,不仅造成信息系统发生故障或瘫痪,往往还造成不良的社会影响。经济损失或许还能追偿或弥补,但因信息安全事故而引起的客户对保险公司的信心缺失却可能是无法弥补的。当前,保险公司基本建立了内部业务管理网络、内部办公网络、对外服务网络等信息服务网络,为公司内部员工、基层网点、终端客户提供广泛的信息服务。实施信息安全管理,能够有效提高信息系统的安全性、…     

The new retirement reality: calculating the true cost of retirement income adequacy

Recognizing that 401(k) plans are emerging as many employees' sole source of employer-sponsored retirement income, plan sponsors are increasingly adding paternalistic plan features to increase the amount--and effectiveness--of dollars invested in 401(k) accounts. The authors describe the results of a study they prepared for Hewitt Associates that assesses retirement income adequacy for individuals represented in a plan participant database of 1.8 million individuals. The study includes analysis of retirement income adequacy for the aggregate population as well as the results for different subgroups, reflecting factors such as whether individuals actively contribute; the impact of different levels of retiree medical coverage; and the presence of a defined benefit pension. Finally, the authors discuss how plan sponsors can bolster the adequacy of retirement income from 401(k) plans, depending on employer objectives.     

保险公司数据集中和信息安全的探究与实践

随着保险市场经营主体逐渐增加和经济全球化、保险国际化带来的冲击,保险行业的竞争正向更广的领域和更深的层面展开.作为金融领域科技创新的潮流和趋势,数据集中是保险公司业务发展、科学管理和市场竞争的需要;是公司由粗放型经营过渡到集约化经营的需要;也是公司业务管理由宝塔式过渡到扁平化的需要.如何防范和控制数据集中带来的风险并保障数据集中处理的正常运行,是数据大集中后保险公司所关心和亟需解决的问题.为此,笔者提出一个构筑保险公司数据集中信息安全体系的解决方案,与同行们探讨.     

论信用保险项下重复保险制度的构建

信用保险在我国是一个新兴的保险种类,根据我国《保险法》对于保险的基本分类,信用保险属于财产保险的一种,但实际上信用保险较之一般的财产保险存在诸多特殊之处,特别是在重复保险问题上更是难以适用《保险法》针对财产保险所设计的相关制度,同时,也不能按照人身保险生命无价原理确定和解决重复保险问题。当信用保险市场开放时,各保险人就会面对重复保险如何界定和分担责任的问题。本文对这一问题提出了一些解决思路。     

要关注保险行业的边缘化倾向

从1980年全面恢复国内保险业务以来,保险业务收入以年均30%的增幅高速增长。但由于保险行业长期以来过度关注保险业务收入数据,在发展过程中忽略了保险业务收入的内涵,导致保险业务收入高速增长的同时,保险行业对于社会应当承担的经济补偿和民生保障的职能在弱化,每逢有大灾大难,本应有突出表现的保险业却经常集体失语,保险行业出现边缘化的倾向,如,保险业过度关注保险业务增长、非寿险业务发展缓慢、财产保险业务的滞后等。     

Utility maximizing portfolio insurance strategies when hedgers consider the impact of their trading on security prices

Portfolio insurance strategies can destabilize markets to such an extent that they may be counterproductive. Destabilization results when hedgers take share prices as given and follow exogenously specified price-based trading rules. We recognize that such trading rules may not be utility maximizing and that hedging affects share prices. Accordingly, we develop a portfolio insurance strategy where hedgers consider the impact of their trading on prices and endogenize their trading rule which is obtained by maximizing expected utility. Moreover, our strategy does not require the dissemination of information about the extent of portfolio-insurance based hedging activity in the economy.     

“云安全”推动安全行业变革

2009年7月28日,瑞星公司庆祝“云安全”系统成功运行一周年。自2008年7月瑞星推出“云安全”系统以来,该系统共截获2000多万个新病毒样本,为用户拦截20亿次以上的挂马网站攻击。实践证明,瑞星“云安全”计划充分实现了预期的构想——安全软件的互联网化,并推动了整个安全行业的变革。     

保险集团财务管理模式探析

近几年来我国保险企业集团化快速发展,财务管理如何适应集团化的需要成了一个亟待研究和解决的问题。本文从分析集团企业不同财务管理模式的利弊入手,全面分析了影响保险集团财务管理模式的各种因素,明确了集团财务管理的基本要求,对保险集团不同发展阶段财务管理模式的选择提出了建议。     

The importance of the volatility risk premium for volatility forecasting

In this paper, we study the role of the volatility risk premium for the forecasting performance of implied volatility. We introduce a non-parametric and parsimonious approach to adjust the model-free implied volatility for the volatility risk premium and implement this methodology using more than 20 years of options and futures data on three major energy markets. Using regression models and statistical loss functions, we find compelling evidence to suggest that the risk premium adjusted implied volatility significantly outperforms other models, including its unadjusted counterpart. Our main finding holds for different choices of volatility estimators and competing time-series models, underlying the robustness of our results.     

中德保险法中的消费者保护比较研究

《德国保险合同法》和我国《保险法》的最新修改都集中体现了对消费者的保护。《德国保险合同法》订立原则放弃了保险单模式,采取申请模式或邀请模式;全面改进了保险人和中间人的指导义务和信息义务,增强了保险透明度;统一规定了书面的义务履行方式和保险人与中间人的文献资料义务,有助于减少证明困难;确立了投保人的撤回权,在归责原则上放弃了全有全无原则,采取比例规则,极大地提高了对消费者的保护。我国新《保险法》虽然改善了对消费者的保护,但不尽如人意之处仍然很多。《德国保险合同法》的具体制度规定给我们提供了很好的借鉴。     

论保险电销渠道与传统渠道的整合

在保险产品日趋同质的背景下,保险营销渠道成为国内保险公司竞争的焦点。与传统渠道相比,保险的电销模式具有不同于传统渠道的特征,电话销售渠道正在快速地发展。目前电销渠道与传统渠道的隔绝产生了矛盾,造成保险公司资源的浪费,也不利于电销模式的持续健康发展。未来的发展趋势必然是各种销售渠道的整合,本文进一步提出了电销渠道与其他渠道有效整合的具体思路。     

The determinants of the hybrid security issuance decision for Australian firms

The Australian capital market has number of distinct characteristics that distinguish it from typical U.S. and European markets. There is a limited listed debt market where most firms use bank debt, convertible debt is not callable and stand alone warrants are used to raise capital. This paper examines the determinants of security choice for hybrid issuers in the Australian market. The results support the pecking order model and the impact of financial distress costs and taxation. Alternatively, the results provide support for the sequential financing model where firms with high profitability use convertible debt and firms with low profitability use warrants, to solve the sequential financing problem.     

The evolution of the Australian life insurance industry

The life insurance industry in Australia has traditionally been an important source of long term finance for both the public and private sector. However, very little historical analysis has been undertaken into an industry that constitutes a fundamental part of the economy's financial sector. The present climate of deregulation has initiated an irrevocable process of change within the industry. To comprehend the full implications of this change it is necessary to have an understanding of how the industry has evolved. This paper seeks to provide a background account of the growth of the life insurance industry in Australia highlighting the influences that have determined the structure of the industry.