On equity-linked life insurance

In equity-linked life insurance contracts, the benefits are directly linked to the value of an investment portfolio. The financial risk can be totally charged to the policyholder in pure equity-linked constracts, or it can be shared between the policyholder and the insurance company, in guaranteed equity-linked contracts (minimum guarantees are offered to the policyholder). In this talk, we will mainly focus on the latter case. Whenever the market value drops below the guaranteed sum, so called additional policy reserves (APR) are required. Since these APR are stochastic and cause additional costs for the insurance company, it is important to quantify the distribution of the APR accurantely. Results obtained by Nonnenmacher and Russ will be presented and also some possibilities for further research.