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Valuation of variable annuities with guaranteed minimum withdrawal and death benefits via stochastic control optimization

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  • Luo, Xiaolin
  • Shevchenko, Pavel V.

Abstract

In this paper we present a numerical valuation of variable annuities with combined Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB) and Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit (GMDB) under optimal policyholder behavior solved as an optimal stochastic control problem. This product simultaneously deals with financial risk, mortality risk and human behavior. We assume that market is complete in financial risk and mortality risk is completely diversified by selling enough policies and thus the annuity price can be expressed as appropriate expectation. The computing engine employed to solve the optimal stochastic control problem is based on a robust and efficient Gauss–Hermite quadrature method with cubic spline. We present results for three different types of death benefit and show that, under the optimal policyholder behavior, adding the premium for the death benefit on top of the GMWB can be problematic for contracts with long maturities if the continuous fee structure is kept, which is ordinarily assumed for a GMWB contract. In fact for some long maturities it can be shown that the fee cannot be charged as any proportion of the account value — there is no solution to match the initial premium with the fair annuity price. On the other hand, the extra fee due to adding the death benefit can be charged upfront or in periodic installment of fixed amount, and it is cheaper than buying a separate life insurance.

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  • Luo, Xiaolin & Shevchenko, Pavel V., 2015. "Valuation of variable annuities with guaranteed minimum withdrawal and death benefits via stochastic control optimization," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 5-15.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:62:y:2015:i:c:p:5-15
    DOI: 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2015.02.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jin Sun & Pavel V. Shevchenko & Man Chung Fung, 2017. "A note on the impact of management fees on the pricing of variable annuity guarantees," Papers 1705.03787, arXiv.org, revised May 2017.
    2. Pavel V. Shevchenko & Xiaolin Luo, 2016. "A Unified Pricing of Variable Annuity Guarantees under the Optimal Stochastic Control Framework," Risks, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-31, July.
    3. Shevchenko, Pavel V. & Luo, Xiaolin, 2017. "Valuation of variable annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit under stochastic interest rate," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 104-117.
    4. Thorsten Moenig, 2021. "Efficient valuation of variable annuity portfolios with dynamic programming," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 1023-1055, December.
    5. Yaowen Lu & Duy-Minh Dang, 2023. "A semi-Lagrangian $\epsilon$-monotone Fourier method for continuous withdrawal GMWBs under jump-diffusion with stochastic interest rate," Papers 2310.00606, arXiv.org.
    6. Michael A. Kouritzin & Anne MacKay, 2017. "VIX-linked fees for GMWBs via Explicit Solution Simulation Methods," Papers 1708.06886, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2018.
    7. Ludovic Gouden`ege & Andrea Molent & Antonino Zanette, 2019. "Gaussian Process Regression for Pricing Variable Annuities with Stochastic Volatility and Interest Rate," Papers 1903.00369, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2019.
    8. Dong, Bing & Xu, Wei & Sevic, Aleksandar & Sevic, Zeljko, 2020. "Efficient willow tree method for variable annuities valuation and risk management☆," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Kouritzin, Michael A. & MacKay, Anne, 2018. "VIX-linked fees for GMWBs via explicit solution simulation methods," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-17.
    10. Hanwen Zhang & Duy-Minh Dang, 2023. "A monotone numerical integration method for mean-variance portfolio optimization under jump-diffusion models," Papers 2309.05977, arXiv.org.
    11. Daniel Doyle & Chris Groendyke, 2018. "Using Neural Networks to Price and Hedge Variable Annuity Guarantees," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Huansang Xu & Ruyi Liu & Marek Rutkowski, 2023. "Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts," Papers 2305.09472, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.

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