Description: This article provides an excerpt of the results of a survey on policyholder behavior in the tail with respect to variable annuity guaranteed benefits. GMIB is specifically addressed.

Description: This article departs from the usual GMWB pricing approach by assuming that the policyholder is always smart enough to act in his/her own best interest.

Description: This article briefly describes the guarantees available within the segregated Fund products sold in Canada along with the associated risks and cost factors.

Description: Variable insurance products are popular in the marketplace. They are risky to insurers partly because the guaranteed minimum living and death benefits give policyholders great control of their policies. In this article, the author investigates managing policyholder behavior.

Description: Life and annuity markets around the world have seen increasingly complex investment-combined products, including universal life, fixed indexed annuities, variable annuities with a wide variety of guaranteed benefits, indexed variable annuities, etc. Insurance companies are facing unprecedented exposure to financial risks in addition to traditional mortality and longevity risks. The risk assessment and modeling for such complex designs by conventional methods often focus heavily on their market competitiveness and profitability. However, there seems to be a lack of quantifiable and systematic approach to assess investment risks associated with investment combined products. The objective of the proposed work is to develop a framework for quantifying and analyzing various forms of contractual designs and showcase different techniques to assess the trade-off between competitive contractual designs and their practical implications with regard to the difficulty of risk management.

Description: ASU 2018-12 introduced a new concept called “market risk benefits” (MRBs). MRBs are a new accounting classification for benefits within deposit contracts, offering protection from “other than nominal market risk.” This applies to products with account values, including variable and indexed annuities with guaranteed living or death benefits attached (aka GMxBs). ASU 2018-12 Section 944-40-30-19D mentions both a non-option and an option-based valuation approach to account for MRBs. This article considers the option-based approach. The purpose is to highlight weaknesses in the current application of the option approach to MRBs, propose an alternative method, and consider the benefits of the new approach. The intent of this article is to persuade practictioners / actuaries / accountants that this is a better approach for applying the fair value option method to market risk benefits.

Description: Discusses a one day seminar in Shanghai, China held on August 25, 2011 by the SOA and the China Regional Committee on variable annuities.

Description: This article discusses a new procedure for correcting inadvertent failures to satisfy the diversification requirements applicable to variable annuity and life insurance contracts under section 817h of the Internal Revenue Code.

Description: Important tools used in property & casualty P&C insurance—predictive modeling and data mining—can be applied to more effectively model policyholder behavior risks in variable annuity VA contracts. In this article, a case study is used to demonstrate how a predictive modeling approach can improve upon traditional methods used to model VA lapse behavior.

Description: Segregated Funds Seminar Illuminates Equity Guarantees Risks by G. Thomas Mitchell from The Financial Reporter, February 2000, Issue No. 41.