Investment Guarantees

A comprehensive guide to investment guarantees in equity-linked life insurance
Due to the convergence of financial and insurance markets, new forms of investment guarantees are emerging which require financial service professionals to become savvier in modeling and risk management. With chapters that discuss stock return models, dynamic hedging, risk measures, Markov Chain Monte Carlo estimation, and much more, this one-stop reference contains the valuable insights and proven techniques that will allow readers to better understand the theory and practice of investment guarantees and equity-linked insurance policies.
Mary Hardy, PhD (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, where she is a frequent speaker. Her research covers topics in life insurance solvency and risk management, with particular emphasis on equity-linked insurance. Hardy is an Associate Editor of the North American Actuarial Journal and the ASTIN Bulletin and is a Deputy Editor of the British Actuarial Journal. Introduction.

Investment Guarantees.

Modeling Long-Term Stock Return.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Stock Return Models.

The Left-Tail Calibration Method.

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Estimation.

Modeling the Guarantee Liability.

A Review of Option Pricing Theory.

Dynamic Hedging for Separate Account Guarantees.

Risk Measures.

Emerging Cost Analysis.

Forecast Uncertainty.

Guaranteed Annuity Options.

Equity-Indexed Annuities.

Appendix A: Mortality and Survival Probabilities.

Appendix B: The GMAB Option Price.

Appendix C: Actuarial Notation.

Appendix D: References.

Index.

PRAISE FOR INVESTMENT GUARANTEES

“In addition to being a valuable and innovative addition to the literature on risk management of equity-linked insurance, this book provides a uniquely clear demonstration of using different measures in a very practical context. A great way of showing actuaries how to ‘mind their Ps and Qs’!”

—Boris Brizeli
Principal and Chief Operations Officer
GE Insource Limited

“This is an extremely well written and comprehensive book which will be useful for both practitioners and graduate students. It provides a unique synthesis of techniques and tools in econometrics, financial engineering, and simulation applied to questions of fundamental importance in insurance.”

—Dr. Andrew Cairns
Reader in Financial and Actuarial Mathematics
Heriot-Watt University

“Investment Guarantees will become the reference book of choice for both actuaries and non-actuaries alike working in the field of guarantees associated with equity-linked products. The book provides an excellent balance between theory and practice in the course of contrasting actuarial modeling and option pricing theory as applied to guarantees on equity-linked products.”

—Larry M. Gorski
Life Actuary
Illinois Department of Insurance

“Professor Hardy strikes the right balance between theory development and practical demonstration, offering insights to both novices and experienced practitioners. Her comprehensive treatment of risk modeling of investment guarantees will benefit actuaries and financial engineers alike, allowing each to understand better the nature and management of equity exposure. Exceptionally readable, Investment Guarantees is an invaluable resource for insurance and financial professionals working with equity-linked insurance and annuity products.”

—Geoffrey H. Hancock
Principal Mercer Risk,
Finance & Insurance Consulting