IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/mathfi/v34y2024i3p739-773.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Insurance–finance arbitrage

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Artzner
  • Karl‐Theodor Eisele
  • Thorsten Schmidt

Abstract

Most insurance contracts are inherently linked to financial markets, be it via interest rates, or—as hybrid products like equity‐linked life insurance and variable annuities—directly to stocks or indices. However, insurance contracts are not for trade except sometimes as surrender to the selling office. This excludes the situation of arbitrage by buying and selling insurance contracts at different prices. Furthermore, the insurer uses private information on top of the publicly available one about financial markets. This paper provides a study of the consistency of insurance contracts in connection with trades in the financial market with explicit mention of the information involved. By defining strategies on an insurance portfolio and combining them with financial trading strategies, we arrive at the notion of insurance–finance arbitrage (IFA). In analogy to the classical fundamental theorem of asset pricing, we give a fundamental theorem on the absence of IFA, leading to the existence of an insurance–finance‐consistent probability. In addition, we study when this probability gives the expected discounted cash‐flows required by the EIOPA best estimate. The generality of our approach allows to incorporate many important aspects, like mortality risk or general levels of dependence between mortality and stock markets. Utilizing the theory of enlargements of filtrations, we construct a tractable framework for insurance–finance consistent valuation.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Artzner & Karl‐Theodor Eisele & Thorsten Schmidt, 2024. "Insurance–finance arbitrage," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 739-773, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:mathfi:v:34:y:2024:i:3:p:739-773
    DOI: 10.1111/mafi.12412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/mafi.12412
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/mafi.12412?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riedel, Frank, 2004. "Dynamic coherent risk measures," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 185-200, August.
    2. Etienne Chevalier & Thomas Lim & Ricardo Romo Romero, 2016. "Indifference fee rate for variable annuities," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 278-308, July.
    3. Hainaut, Donatien & Devolder, Pierre & Pelsser, Antoon, 2018. "Robust evaluation of SCR for participating life insurances under Solvency II," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 107-123.
    4. Schachermayer, W., 1992. "A Hilbert space proof of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing in finite discrete time," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 249-257, December.
    5. Pansera, Jérôme, 2012. "Discrete-time local risk minimization of payment processes and applications to equity-linked life-insurance contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-11.
    6. Laura Ballotta & Ernst Eberlein & Thorsten Schmidt & Raghid Zeineddine, 2020. "Variable annuities in a Lévy-based hybrid model with surrender risk," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 867-886, May.
    7. Bühlmann, Hans & Platen, Eckhard, 2003. "A Discrete Time Benchmark Approach for Insurance and Finance," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 153-172, November.
    8. Andreas Tsanakas & Evangelia Desli, 2005. "Measurement and Pricing of Risk in Insurance Markets," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1653-1668, December.
    9. Eckhard Platen, 2006. "A Benchmark Approach To Finance," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 131-151, January.
    10. Deelstra, Griselda & Devolder, Pierre & Gnameho, Kossi & Hieber, Peter, 2020. "Valuation of hybrid financial and actuarial products in life insurance by a novel three-step method," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2020020, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    11. Rama Cont, 2006. "Model Uncertainty And Its Impact On The Pricing Of Derivative Instruments," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 519-547, July.
    12. Brennan, Michael J. & Schwartz, Eduardo S., 1976. "The pricing of equity-linked life insurance policies with an asset value guarantee," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 195-213, June.
    13. Artzner, Philippe & Eisele, Karl-Theodor, 2010. "Supervisory Insurance Accounting: Mathematics for Provision – and Solvency Capital – Requirements," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 569-585, November.
    14. Irene Klein, 2000. "A Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing for Large Financial Markets," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 443-458, October.
    15. Bacinello, Anna Rita & Millossovich, Pietro & Olivieri, Annamaria & Pitacco, Ermanno, 2011. "Variable annuities: A unifying valuation approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 285-297.
    16. Patrick Cheridito & Michael Kupper, 2011. "Composition Of Time-Consistent Dynamic Monetary Risk Measures In Discrete Time," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(01), pages 137-162.
    17. Ze Chen & Bingzheng Chen & Jan Dhaene, 2020. "Fair dynamic valuation of insurance liabilities: a loss averse convex hedging approach," Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2020(9), pages 792-818, October.
    18. Laurence Carassus & Huye^n Pham & Nizar Touzi, 2001. "No Arbitrage in Discrete Time Under Portfolio Constraints," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 315-329, July.
    19. Philippe Artzner & Freddy Delbaen & Jean‐Marc Eber & David Heath, 1999. "Coherent Measures of Risk," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 203-228, July.
    20. Lars Niemann & Thorsten Schmidt, 2021. "A conditional version of the second fundamental theorem of asset pricing in discrete time," Papers 2102.13574, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    21. Sergio Pulido, 2010. "The fundamental theorem of asset pricing, the hedging problem and maximal claims in financial markets with short sales prohibitions," Papers 1012.3102, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2014.
    22. Barigou, Karim & Chen, Ze & Dhaene, Jan, 2019. "Fair dynamic valuation of insurance liabilities: Merging actuarial judgement with market- and time-consistency," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 19-29.
    23. Malamud, Semyon & Trubowitz, Eugene & Wüthrich, Mario V., 2008. "Market Consistent Pricing of Insurance Products," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 483-526, November.
    24. Hampus Engsner & Kristoffer Lindensjö & Filip Lindskog, 2020. "The value of a liability cash flow in discrete time subject to capital requirements," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 125-167, January.
    25. Patrick Cheridito & Tianhui Li, 2009. "Risk Measures On Orlicz Hearts," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 189-214, April.
    26. Min Dai & Yue Kuen Kwok & Jianping Zong, 2008. "Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit In Variable Annuities," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 595-611, October.
    27. Deelstra, Griselda & Devolder, Pierre & Gnameho, Kossi & Hieber, Peter, 2020. "Valuation Of Hybrid Financial And Actuarial Products In Life Insurance By A Novel Three-Step Method," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 709-742, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe ARTZNER & Karl-Theodor EISELE & Thorsten SCHMIDT, 2022. "Insurance-Finance Arbitrage," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2022-09, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    2. Engsner, Hampus & Lindskog, Filip & Thøgersen, Julie, 2023. "Multiple-prior valuation of cash flows subject to capital requirements," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 41-56.
    3. Hansjörg Albrecher & Karl‐Theodor Eisele & Mogens Steffensen & Mario V. Wüthrich, 2022. "On the cost‐of‐capital rate under incomplete market valuation," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(4), pages 1139-1158, December.
    4. Philippe Artzner & Karl-Theodor Eisele & Thorsten Schmidt, 2020. "Insurance-Finance Arbitrage," Papers 2005.11022, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    5. Hampus Engsner & Filip Lindskog & Julie Thoegersen, 2021. "Multiple-prior valuation of cash flows subject to capital requirements," Papers 2109.00306, arXiv.org.
    6. Antoon Pelsser & Mitja Stadje, 2014. "Time-Consistent And Market-Consistent Evaluations," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 25-65, January.
    7. Wayne King Ming Chan, 2015. "RAROC-Based Contingent Claim Valuation," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 3-2015, January-A.
    8. Wayne King Ming Chan, 2015. "RAROC-Based Contingent Claim Valuation," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 21, July-Dece.
    9. Karim Barigou & Daniel Linders & Fan Yang, 2021. "Actuarial-consistency and two-step actuarial valuations: a new paradigm to insurance valuation," Papers 2109.13796, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    10. Karim Barigou & Valeria Bignozzi & Andreas Tsanakas, 2021. "Insurance valuation: A two-step generalised regression approach," Post-Print hal-03043244, HAL.
    11. Tomasz R. Bielecki & Igor Cialenco & Marcin Pitera, 2014. "A unified approach to time consistency of dynamic risk measures and dynamic performance measures in discrete time," Papers 1409.7028, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2017.
    12. Chen, Ze & Chen, Bingzheng & Dhaene, Jan & Yang, Tianyu, 2021. "Fair dynamic valuation of insurance liabilities via convex hedging," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 1-13.
    13. Karim Barigou & Daniël Linders & Fan yang, 2022. "Actuarial-consistency and two-step actuarial valuations: a new paradigm to insurance valuation," Working Papers hal-03327710, HAL.
    14. Tomasz R. Bielecki & Igor Cialenco & Marcin Pitera, 2018. "A Unified Approach to Time Consistency of Dynamic Risk Measures and Dynamic Performance Measures in Discrete Time," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 204-221, February.
    15. Zachary Feinstein & Birgit Rudloff, 2018. "Scalar multivariate risk measures with a single eligible asset," Papers 1807.10694, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.
    16. Yanhong Chen & Zachary Feinstein, 2022. "Set-valued dynamic risk measures for processes and for vectors," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 505-533, July.
    17. Francesco Della Corte & Gian Paolo Clemente & Nino Savelli, 2023. "A cohort-based Partial Internal Model for demographic risk," Papers 2307.03090, arXiv.org.
    18. Elisa Mastrogiacomo & Emanuela Rosazza Gianin, 2019. "Time-consistency of risk measures: how strong is such a property?," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 42(1), pages 287-317, June.
    19. Acciaio, Beatrice & Föllmer, Hans & Penner, Irina, 2012. "Risk assessment for uncertain cash flows: model ambiguity, discounting ambiguity, and the role of bubbles," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 50118, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Ignatieva, Katja & Song, Andrew & Ziveyi, Jonathan, 2016. "Pricing and hedging of guaranteed minimum benefits under regime-switching and stochastic mortality," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 286-300.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:mathfi:v:34:y:2024:i:3:p:739-773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0960-1627 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.