IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/uaajxx/v21y2017i4p502-525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mitigating Interest Rate Risk in Variable Annuities: An Analysis of Hedging Effectiveness under Model Risk

Author

Listed:
  • Maciej Augustyniak
  • Mathieu Boudreault

Abstract

Variable annuities are investment vehicles offered by insurance companies that combine a life insurance policy with long-term financial guarantees. These guarantees expose the insurer to market risks, such as volatility and interest rate risks, which can be managed only with a hedging strategy. The objective of this article is to study the effectiveness of dynamic delta-rho hedging strategies for mitigating interest rate risk in variable annuities with either a guaranteed minimum death benefit or guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit rider. Our analysis centers on three important practical issues: (1) the robustness of delta-rho hedging strategies to model uncertainty, (2) the impact of guarantee features (maturity versus withdrawal benefits) on the performance of the hedging strategy, and (3) the importance of hedging interest rate risk in either a low and stable or rising interest rate environment. Overall, we find that the impact of interest rate risk is equally felt for the two types of products considered, and that interest rate hedges do lead to a significant risk reduction for the insurer, even when the ongoing low interest rate environment is factored in.

Suggested Citation

  • Maciej Augustyniak & Mathieu Boudreault, 2017. "Mitigating Interest Rate Risk in Variable Annuities: An Analysis of Hedging Effectiveness under Model Risk," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 502-525, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:uaajxx:v:21:y:2017:i:4:p:502-525
    DOI: 10.1080/10920277.2017.1316210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10920277.2017.1316210
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10920277.2017.1316210?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Britten‐Jones & Anthony Neuberger, 2000. "Option Prices, Implied Price Processes, and Stochastic Volatility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 839-866, April.
    2. Ryan Donnelly & Sebastian Jaimungal & Dmitri H. Rubisov, 2014. "Valuing guaranteed withdrawal benefits with stochastic interest rates and volatility," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 369-382, February.
    3. Kijima, Masaaki & Wong, Tony, 2007. "Pricing of Ratchet equity-indexed annuities under stochastic interest rates," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 317-338, November.
    4. X. Sheldon Lin & Ken Seng Tan, 2003. "Valuation of Equity-Indexed Annuities Under Stochastic Interest Rates," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 72-91.
    5. Bakshi, Gurdip & Cao, Charles & Chen, Zhiwu, 1997. "Empirical Performance of Alternative Option Pricing Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 2003-2049, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Anne MacKay & Maciej Augustyniak & Carole Bernard & Mary R. Hardy, 2017. "Risk Management of Policyholder Behavior in Equity-Linked Life Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(2), pages 661-690, June.
    8. Gurdip Bakshi & Nikunj Kapadia, 2003. "Delta-Hedged Gains and the Negative Market Volatility Risk Premium," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 527-566.
    9. Busch, Thomas & Christensen, Bent Jesper & Nielsen, Morten Ørregaard, 2011. "The role of implied volatility in forecasting future realized volatility and jumps in foreign exchange, stock, and bond markets," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 48-57, January.
    10. Bakshi, Gurdip & Cao, Charles & Chen, Zhiwu, 2000. "Pricing and hedging long-term options," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 277-318.
    11. Neumann, Maximilian & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Wese Simen, Chardin, 2016. "Jump and variance risk premia in the S&P 500," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 72-83.
    12. Feng, Runhuan & Huang, Huaxiong, 2016. "Statutory financial reporting for variable annuity guaranteed death benefits: Market practice, mathematical modeling and computation," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 54-64.
    13. Aase Nielsen, J. & Sandmann, Klaus, 1995. "Equity-linked life insurance: A model with stochastic interest rates," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 225-253, July.
    14. Milevsky, Moshe A. & Salisbury, Thomas S., 2006. "Financial valuation of guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 21-38, February.
    15. Coleman, Thomas F. & Li, Yuying & Patron, Maria-Cristina, 2006. "Hedging guarantees in variable annuities under both equity and interest rate risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 215-228, April.
    16. Runhuan Feng, 2014. "A Comparative Study of Risk Measures for Guaranteed Minimum Maturity Benefits by a PDE Method," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 445-461, October.
    17. Andreas Kaeck & Carol Alexander, 2013. "Stochastic Volatility Jump†Diffusions for European Equity Index Dynamics," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 470-496, June.
    18. Rabinovitch, Ramon, 1989. "Pricing Stock and Bond Options when the Default-Free Rate is Stochastic," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(4), pages 447-457, December.
    19. Becker, Ralf & Clements, Adam E. & White, Scott I., 2006. "On the informational efficiency of S&P500 implied volatility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 139-153, August.
    20. Dickson,David C. M. & Hardy,Mary R. & Waters,Howard R., 2013. "Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risks," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107044074, October.
    21. Carol Alexander & Andreas Kaeck, 2012. "Does model fit matter for hedging? Evidence from FTSE 100 options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(7), pages 609-638, July.
    22. Koopman, Siem Jan & Jungbacker, Borus & Hol, Eugenie, 2005. "Forecasting daily variability of the S&P 100 stock index using historical, realised and implied volatility measurements," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 445-475, June.
    23. Kling, Alexander & Ruez, Frederik & Ruß, Jochen, 2011. "The Impact of Stochastic Volatility on Pricing, Hedging, and Hedge Efficiency of Withdrawal Benefit Guarantees in Variable Annuities," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 511-545, November.
    24. Chen, Ren-Raw & Scott, Louis, 2003. "Multi-factor Cox-Ingersoll-Ross Models of the Term Structure: Estimates and Tests from a Kalman Filter Model," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 143-172, September.
    25. Jingjiang Peng & Kwai Sun Leung & Yue Kuen Kwok, 2012. "Pricing guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits under stochastic interest rates," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(6), pages 933-941, October.
    26. Yingzi Zhu & Jin E. Zhang, 2007. "Variance Term Structure And Vix Futures Pricing," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(01), pages 111-127.
    27. Zaglauer, Katharina & Bauer, Daniel, 2008. "Risk-neutral valuation of participating life insurance contracts in a stochastic interest rate environment," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 29-40, August.
    28. Carol Alexander & Alexander Rubinov & Markus Kalepky & Stamatis Leontsinis, 2012. "Regime‐dependent smile‐adjusted delta hedging," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 203-229, March.
    29. Dimitris Psychoyios & George Skiadopoulos, 2006. "Volatility options: Hedging effectiveness, pricing, and model error," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1-31, January.
    30. Chernov, Mikhail, 2007. "On the Role of Risk Premia in Volatility Forecasting," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 411-426, October.
    31. Bauer, Daniel & Kling, Alexander & Russ, Jochen, 2008. "A Universal Pricing Framework for Guaranteed Minimum Benefits in Variable Annuities 1," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 621-651, November.
    32. George J. Jiang & Yisong S. Tian, 2005. "The Model-Free Implied Volatility and Its Information Content," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1305-1342.
    33. Cathcart, Mark J. & Lok, Hsiao Yen & McNeil, Alexander J. & Morrison, Steven, 2015. "Calculating Variable Annuity Liability “Greeks” Using Monte Carlo Simulation," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 239-266, May.
    34. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:2059-2106 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Xiao Wei & Marcellino Gaudenzi & Antonino Zanette, 2013. "Pricing Ratchet Equity-Indexed Annuities with Early Surrender Risk in a CIR++ Model," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 229-252.
    36. Peter Carr & Liuren Wu, 2009. "Variance Risk Premiums," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1311-1341, March.
    37. Chen, Z. & Vetzal, K. & Forsyth, P.A., 2008. "The effect of modelling parameters on the value of GMWB guarantees," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 165-173, August.
    38. Florence Guillaume & Wim Schoutens, 2012. "Calibration risk: Illustrating the impact of calibration risk under the Heston model," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 57-79, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bauer Jan, 2020. "Hedging of Variable Annuities under Basis Risk," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-34, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Carbonneau, Alexandre, 2021. "Deep hedging of long-term financial derivatives," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 327-340.
    4. Alexandre Carbonneau, 2020. "Deep Hedging of Long-Term Financial Derivatives," Papers 2007.15128, arXiv.org.

    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. Feng, Runhuan & Yi, Bingji, 2019. "Quantitative modeling of risk management strategies: Stochastic reserving and hedging of variable annuity guaranteed benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-73.
    2. Forsyth, Peter & Vetzal, Kenneth, 2014. "An optimal stochastic control framework for determining the cost of hedging of variable annuities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 29-53.
    3. Claudio Fontana & Francesco Rotondi, 2022. "Valuation of general GMWB annuities in a low interest rate environment," Papers 2208.10183, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    4. Dai, Tian-Shyr & Yang, Sharon S. & Liu, Liang-Chih, 2015. "Pricing guaranteed minimum/lifetime withdrawal benefits with various provisions under investment, interest rate and mortality risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 364-379.
    5. Fontana, Claudio & Rotondi, Francesco, 2023. "Valuation of general GMWB annuities in a low interest rate environment," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 142-167.
    6. Ludovic Goudenege & Andrea Molent & Antonino Zanette, 2019. "Pricing and hedging GMWB in the Heston and in the Black–Scholes with stochastic interest rate models," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 217-248, February.
    7. Bernard, Carole & Kwak, Minsuk, 2016. "Semi-static hedging of variable annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 173-186.
    8. Moenig, Thorsten, 2021. "Variable annuities: Market incompleteness and policyholder behavior," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 63-78.
    9. Gonzalez-Perez, Maria T., 2015. "Model-free volatility indexes in the financial literature: A review," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 141-159.
    10. 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.
    11. Wang, Gu & Zou, Bin, 2021. "Optimal fee structure of variable annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PB), pages 587-601.
    12. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    13. Huang, H. & Milevsky, M.A. & Salisbury, T.S., 2014. "Optimal initiation of a GLWB in a variable annuity: No Arbitrage approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 102-111.
    14. Jin Sun & Pavel V. Shevchenko & Man Chung Fung, 2018. "The Impact of Management Fees on the Pricing of Variable Annuity Guarantees," Risks, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-20, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Bollerslev, Tim & Gibson, Michael & Zhou, Hao, 2011. "Dynamic estimation of volatility risk premia and investor risk aversion from option-implied and realized volatilities," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 235-245, January.
    17. González-Urteaga, Ana & Rubio, Gonzalo, 2016. "The cross-sectional variation of volatility risk premia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 353-370.
    18. Papantonis, Ioannis, 2016. "Volatility risk premium implications of GARCH option pricing models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 104-115.
    19. Psaradellis, Ioannis & Sermpinis, Georgios, 2016. "Modelling and trading the U.S. implied volatility indices. Evidence from the VIX, VXN and VXD indices," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1268-1283.
    20. Christoffersen, Peter & Jacobs, Kris & Chang, Bo Young, 2013. "Forecasting with Option-Implied Information," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 581-656, Elsevier.

    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:taf:uaajxx:v:21:y:2017:i:4:p:502-525. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/uaaj .

    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.