IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2305.09472.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts

Author

Listed:
  • Huansang Xu
  • Ruyi Liu
  • Marek Rutkowski

Abstract

We propose to develop a new class of investment insurance products for holders of superannuation accounts in Australia, which we tentatively call equity protection swaps (EPSs). An EPS is a standalone financial derivative, which is reminiscent of a total return swap but also shares some features with the variable annuity known as the registered index-linked annuity (RILA). The buyer of an EPS obtains partial protection against losses on a reference portfolio and, in exchange, agrees to share portfolio gains with the insurance provider if the realized return on a reference portfolio is above a predetermined threshold. Formally, a generic EPS consists of protection and fee legs with participation rates agreed upon by the provider and holder. A general fair pricing formula for an EPS is obtained by considering a static hedging strategy based on traded European options. It is argued that to make the contract appealing to holders, the provider should select appropriate protection and fee rates that make the fair premium at the contract's inception equal to zero. A numerical study based on the Black-Scholes model and empirical tests based on market data for S\&P~500 and S&P/ASX~200 indices for 2020-2022 demonstrates the benefits of an EPS as an efficient investment insurance tool for superannuation accounts.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2305.09472
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.09472
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rogalla, Ralph, 2015. "Optimal life cycle portfolio choice with variable annuities offering liquidity and investment downside protection," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-107.
    2. Alex Szimayer, 2005. "Valuation of American options in the presence of event risk," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 89-107, January.
    3. 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.
    4. Xiaolin Luo & Pavel Shevchenko, 2015. "Variable Annuity with GMWB: surrender or not, that is the question," Papers 1507.08738, arXiv.org.
    5. Alejandro Drexler & Thanases Plestis & Richard J. Rosen, 2017. "How Much Risk Do Variable Annuity Guarantees Pose to Life Insurers?," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    6. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. 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.
    8. Huang, Yao Tung & Kwok, Yue Kuen, 2014. "Analysis of optimal dynamic withdrawal policies in withdrawal guarantee products," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 19-43.
    9. Merton, Robert C., 1976. "Option pricing when underlying stock returns are discontinuous," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 125-144.
    10. Yang, Sharon S. & Dai, Tian-Shyr, 2013. "A flexible tree for evaluating guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits under deferred life annuity contracts with various provisions," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 231-242.
    11. 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.
    12. Pavel V. Shevchenko & Xiaolin Luo, 2016. "A unified pricing of variable annuity guarantees under the optimal stochastic control framework," Papers 1605.00339, arXiv.org.
    13. Gentry, William M. & Rothschild, Casey G., 2010. "Enhancing Retirement Security Through the Tax Code: The Efficacy of Tax-Based Subsidies in Life Annuity Markets," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 185-218, April.
    14. S. G. Kou, 2002. "A Jump-Diffusion Model for Option Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1086-1101, August.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Christophette Blanchet-Scalliet & Etienne Chevalier & Idriss Kharroubi & Thomas Lim, 2015. "Max-Min optimization problem for Variable Annuities pricing," Post-Print hal-01017160, HAL.
    18. Bernard, Carole & MacKay, Anne & Muehlbeyer, Max, 2014. "Optimal surrender policy for variable annuity guarantees," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 116-128.
    19. 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.
    20. Xiaolin Luo & Pavel Shevchenko, 2014. "Fast Numerical Method for Pricing of Variable Annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit under Optimal Withdrawal Strategy," Papers 1410.8609, arXiv.org.
    21. 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.
    22. Xiaolin Luo & Pavel V. Shevchenko, 2014. "Valuation of Variable Annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal and Death Benefits via Stochastic Control Optimization," Papers 1411.5453, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2015.
    23. Christophette Blanchet-Scalliet & Etienne Chevalier & Idris Kharroubi & Thomas Lim, 2015. "Max–Min Optimization Problem For Variable Annuities Pricing," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(08), pages 1-35, December.
    24. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. Claudio Fontana & Francesco Rotondi, 2022. "Valuation of general GMWB annuities in a low interest rate environment," Papers 2208.10183, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Kirkby, J. Lars & Nguyen, Duy, 2021. "Equity-linked Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits with dollar cost averaging," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 408-428.
    11. 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.
    12. Paolo Angelis & Roberto Marchis & Antonio L. Martire & Emilio Russo, 2022. "A flexible lattice framework for valuing options on assets paying discrete dividends and variable annuities embedding GMWB riders," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 45(1), pages 415-446, June.
    13. 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.
    14. Hsieh, Ming-hua & Wang, Jennifer L. & Chiu, Yu-Fen & Chen, Yen-Chih, 2018. "Valuation of variable long-term care Annuities with Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits: A variance reduction approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 246-254.
    15. Bacinello, Anna Rita & Maggistro, Rosario & Zoccolan, Ivan, 2024. "Risk-neutral valuation of GLWB riders in variable annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-14.
    16. Riley Jones & Adriana Ocejo, 2019. "Assessing Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefits and Rationality of Exercising Reset Options in Variable," Papers 1911.06123, arXiv.org.
    17. Jennifer Alonso Garcia & Michael Sherris & Samuel Thirurajah & Jonathan Ziveyi, 2020. "Taxation and policyholder behavior: the case of guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/307889, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2305.09472. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.