Insurance Company Financial Risk Analysis

Historically, financial and insurance risks were separate subjects most often analyzed using qualitative methods. The development of quantitative methods based on stochastic analysis is an important achievement of modern financial mathematics, one that can naturally be extended and applied in actuarial mathematics. Risk Analysis in Finance and Insurance offers the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to the ideas, methods, and probabilistic models that have transformed risk management into a quantitative science and led to unified methods for analyzing insurance and finance risks. The author's approach is based on a methodology for estimating the present value of future payments given current financial, insurance, and other information, which leads to proper, practical definitions of the price of a financial contract, the premium for an insurance policy, and the reserve of an insurance company. Self-contained and full of exercises and worked examples, Risk Analysis in Finance and Insurance serves equally well as a text for courses in financial and actuarial mathematics and as a valuable reference for financial analysts and actuaries. Ancillary electronic materials will be available for download from the publisher's Web site.

This book provides professional-level information on how to analyze the financial and business well-being of all types of insurance company, including Lloyd's of London syndicates. The proposed risk-based assessment framework will enable better Credit, Investment, Policy and other decisions, subject to the risk-averse stance of decision-makers.

Historically, financial and insurance risks were separate subjects most often analyzed using qualitative methods. The development of quantitative methods based on stochastic analysis is an important achievement of modern financial mathematics, one that can naturally be extended and applied in actuarial mathematics. Risk Analysis in Finance and Insurance offers the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to the ideas, methods, and probabilistic models that have transformed risk management into a quantitative science and led to unified methods for analyzing insurance and finance risks. The author's approach is based on a methodology for estimating the present value of future payments given current financial, insurance, and other information, which leads to proper, practical definitions of the price of a financial contract, the premium for an insurance policy, and the reserve of an insurance company. Self-contained and full of exercises and worked examples, Risk Analysis in Finance and Insurance serves equally well as a text for courses in financial and actuarial mathematics and as a valuable reference for financial analysts and actuaries. Ancillary electronic materials will be available for download from the publisher's Web site.

Major challenges for life insurance companies have been posed by an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and the emergence of non-traditional competitors such as banks, mutual fund companies and investment advisory firms. This is the first book to analyze the determinants of firm performance in the life insurance industry by identifying the `best practices' employed by leading insurers to succeed in this dynamic business environment. The book draws upon data from insurer financial statements as well as upon an extensive survey of life insurer management practices and strategic choices in distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and financial strategies. Generic strategies such as cost leadership, customer focus, and product differentiation are analyzed as well as strategic practices specific to the insurance industry. Best practices are identified by measuring the economic efficiency of insurers and by comparing firms across the industry. Both cost and revenue efficiency are measured relative to best practice efficient frontiers consisting of the industry's dominant life insurance firms. Economies of scale and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency are also analyzed. Financial strategies are examined with specific reference to pricing policy, valuation of assets and liabilities, and the current state of firm-level risk management systems. The benchmarks established are the result of extensive fieldwork that identifies key financial risks and methodologies to both measure and manage them at the firm level. The results discussed in the book indicate that firm performance is significantly correlated with management practices and strategic choices. Thus, life insurers can improve profitability by adopting optimal combinations of strategies. The book contains important new material on the effects of strategic choices in product distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and financial risk management policies. In the area of efficiency, the methodology provides a new approach for identifying peer groups of insurers and measuring the performance of individual insurers relative to their peer group. On the topics of risk and pricing, new insights are offered relative to current methodologies and in regard to areas where improvement is clearly warranted. The book concludes with an analysis of the future opportunities and challenges in the life insurance industry facing managers, and the strategic options available to them to cope with these changes.

With contributions presented during the Second International Risk Management Conference, this second volume addresses important areas of risk management from a variety of angles and perspectives. The book will cover two separate tracks—financial risk management and risk management and corporate strategies—and will be of interest to academic researchers and students in risk management, banking, and finance.

This paper explores insurance as a source of financial system vulnerability. It provides a brief overview of the insurance industry and reviews the risks it faces, as well as several recent failures of insurance companies that had systemic implications. Assimilation of banking-type activities by life insurers appears to be the key systemic vulnerability. Building on this experience and the experience gained under the FSAP, the paper proposes key indicators that should be compiled and used for surveillance of financial soundness of insurance companies and the insurance sector as a whole.

This second edition expands the first chapters, which focus on the approach to risk management issues discussed in the first edition, to offer readers a better understanding of the risk management process and the relevant quantitative phases. In the following chapters the book examines life insurance, non-life insurance and pension plans, presenting the technical and financial aspects of risk transfers and insurance without the use of complex mathematical tools. The book is written in a comprehensible style making it easily accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Economics, Business and Finance, as well as undergraduate students in Mathematics who intend starting on an actuarial qualification path. With the systematic inclusion of practical topics, professionals will find this text useful when working in insurance and pension related areas, where investments, risk analysis and financial reporting play a major role.