It is a challenging task to read the balance sheet of an insurance company. This derives from the fact that different positions are often measured by different yardsticks. Assets, for example, are mostly valued at market prices whereas liabilities are often measured by established actuarial methods. However, there is a general agreement that the balance sheet of an insurance company should be measured in a consistent way. Market-Consistent Actuarial Valuation presents powerful methods to measure liabilities and assets in a consistent way. The mathematical framework that leads to market-consistent values for insurance liabilities is explained in detail by the authors. Topics covered are stochastic discounting with deflators, valuation portfolio in life and non-life insurance, probability distortions, asset and liability management, financial risks, insurance technical risks, and solvency.
Risk management for financial institutions is one of the key topics the financial industry has to deal with. The present volume is a mathematically rigorous text on solvency modeling. Currently, there are many new developments in this area in the financial and insurance industry (Basel III and Solvency II), but none of these developments provides a fully consistent and comprehensive framework for the analysis of solvency questions. Merz and Wüthrich combine ideas from financial mathematics (no-arbitrage theory, equivalent martingale measure), actuarial sciences (insurance claims modeling, cash flow valuation) and economic theory (risk aversion, probability distortion) to provide a fully consistent framework. Within this framework they then study solvency questions in incomplete markets, analyze hedging risks, and study asset-and-liability management questions, as well as issues like the limited liability options, dividend to shareholder questions, the role of re-insurance, etc. This work embeds the solvency discussion (and long-term liabilities) into a scientific framework and is intended for researchers as well as practitioners in the financial and actuarial industry, especially those in charge of internal risk management systems. Readers should have a good background in probability theory and statistics, and should be familiar with popular distributions, stochastic processes, martingales, etc.
What would you like to do with your life? What career would allow you to fulfill your dreams of success? If you like mathematics—and the prospect of a highly mobile, international profession—consider becoming an actuary. Szabo's Actuaries' Survival Guide, Second Edition explains what actuaries are, what they do, and where they do it. It describes exciting combinations of ideas, techniques, and skills involved in the day-to-day work of actuaries. This second edition has been updated to reflect the rise of social networking and the internet, the progress toward a global knowledge-based economy, and the global expansion of the actuarial field that has occurred since the first edition. - Includes details on the new structures of the Society of Actuaries' (SOA) and Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) examinations, as well as sample questions and answers - Presents an overview of career options, includes profiles of companies & agencies that employ actuaries. - Provides a link between theory and practice and helps readers understand the blend of qualitative and quantitative skills and knowledge required to succeed in actuarial exams - Includes insights provided by over 50 actuaries and actuarial students about the actuarial profession - Author Fred Szabo has directed the Actuarial Co-op Program at Concordia for over fifteen years
This book explores theoretical and practical implications of reflecting the fair value of liabilities for insurance companies. In addition, the contributions discuss the disclosure of these values to the financial and regulatory communities and auditing firms which are actually calculating this illusive but important variable. It combines contributions by distinguished practitioners from the insurance, accounting and finance fields, with those of prominent academics. One of the central themes of the collection is that adequate disclosure of the true economic value of insurance company liabilities is both possible and desirable. Wherever possible, the insurance valuation process is wedded with modern financial theory. For example, the use of option pricing theory is applied to insurance companies, where the true value of the firm's liabilities is a critical variable. Methods such as cash flow, earned profit and indirect discount are explored.
This book provides a thorough understanding of the fundamental concepts of financial mathematics essential for the evaluation of any financial product and instrument. Mastering concepts of present and future values of streams of cash flows under different interest rate environments is core for actuaries and financial economists. This book covers the body of knowledge required by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) for its Financial Mathematics (FM) Exam.The third edition includes major changes such as an addition of an 'R Laboratory' section in each chapter, except for Chapter 9. These sections provide R codes to do various computations, which will facilitate students to apply conceptual knowledge. Additionally, key definitions have been revised and the theme structure has been altered. Students studying undergraduate courses on financial mathematics for actuaries will find this book useful. This book offers numerous examples and exercises, some of which are adapted from previous SOA FM Exams. It is also useful for students preparing for the actuarial professional exams through self-study.
A new textbook offering a comprehensive introduction to models and techniques for the emerging field of actuarial Finance Drs. Boudreault and Renaud answer the need for a clear, application-oriented guide to the growing field of actuarial finance with this volume, which focuses on the mathematical models and techniques used in actuarial finance for the pricing and hedging of actuarial liabilities exposed to financial markets and other contingencies. With roots in modern financial mathematics, actuarial finance presents unique challenges due to the long-term nature of insurance liabilities, the presence of mortality or other contingencies and the structure and regulations of the insurance and pension markets. Motivated, designed and written for and by actuaries, this book puts actuarial applications at the forefront in addition to balancing mathematics and finance at an adequate level to actuarial undergraduates. While the classical theory of financial mathematics is discussed, the authors provide a thorough grounding in such crucial topics as recognizing embedded options in actuarial liabilities, adequately quantifying and pricing liabilities, and using derivatives and other assets to manage actuarial and financial risks. Actuarial applications are emphasized and illustrated with about 300 examples and 200 exercises. The book also comprises end-of-chapter point-form summaries to help the reader review the most important concepts. Additional topics and features include: Compares pricing in insurance and financial markets Discusses event-triggered derivatives such as weather, catastrophe and longevity derivatives and how they can be used for risk management; Introduces equity-linked insurance and annuities (EIAs, VAs), relates them to common derivatives and how to manage mortality for these products Introduces pricing and replication in incomplete markets and analyze the impact of market incompleteness on insurance and risk management; Presents immunization techniques alongside Greeks-based hedging; Covers in detail how to delta-gamma/rho/vega hedge a liability and how to rebalance periodically a hedging portfolio. This text will prove itself a firm foundation for undergraduate courses in financial mathematics or economics, actuarial mathematics or derivative markets. It is also highly applicable to current and future actuaries preparing for the exams or actuary professionals looking for a valuable addition to their reference shelf. As of 2019, the book covers significant parts of the Society of Actuaries’ Exams FM, IFM and QFI Core, and the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Exams 2 and 3F. It is assumed the reader has basic skills in calculus (differentiation and integration of functions), probability (at the level of the Society of Actuaries’ Exam P), interest theory (time value of money) and, ideally, a basic understanding of elementary stochastic processes such as random walks.
Lays out specific tools and strategies that enable actuaries and other technical professionals to add greater value to their organizations by being more influential in the way they communicate, influence and relate to others. --from publisher description
This book is different from all other books on Life Insurance by at least one of the following characteristics 1-4. 1. The treatment of life insurances at three different levels: time-capital, present value and price level. We call time-capital any distribution of a capital over time: (*) is the time-capital with amounts Cl, ~, ... , C at moments Tl, T , ..• , T resp. N 2 N For instance, let (x) be a life at instant 0 with future lifetime X. Then the whole oO oO life insurance A is the time-capital (I,X). The whole life annuity ä is the x x time-capital (1,0) + (1,1) + (1,2) + ... + (I,'X), where 'X is the integer part ofX. The present value at 0 of time-capital (*) is the random variable T1 T TN Cl V + ~ v , + ... + CNV . (**) In particular, the present value ofA 00 and ä 00 is x x 0 0 2 A = ~ and ä = 1 + v + v + ... + v'X resp. x x The price (or premium) of a time-capital is the expectation of its present value. In particular, the price ofA 00 and äx 00 is x 2 A = E(~) and ä = E(I + v + v + ... + v'X) resp.
Actuaries are experts in assessing risk, so it is not surprising that over the past few years they have become involved in many new areas of financial planning, including the appraisal of major capital projects. In this collection of essays published to celebrate the Institute of Actuaries' 150th Anniversary, leading experts describe how actuarial concepts have contributed to many important social and financial developments, and how these ideas will continue to "make financial sense of the future." Even non-mathematicians will find this book useful in understanding how the scientific bases of the insurance and pensions industries grew up, and how they work today. The authors each write from the perspective of their own special expertise. They include five former presidents of the Institute of Faculty of Actuaries.
