A comparison of two legislative approaches to the pay-as-you-go pension system in terms of adequacy. The Italian case

The aim of our work is to evaluate a new legislative proposal of the Italian pension system due to Giuliano Cazzola e Tiziano Treu and to compare it with the system in force due to former Minister Elsa Fornero. The evaluation is made in terms of adequacy. We make use of a mathematical model which, under the hypothesis of demographic equilibrium, formalizes the legislative changes of the pay-as-you-go pension system. The model is tested using Italian demographic and socio-economic data.The pay-as-you-go pension system in force is notional defined contribution and has the huge drawback that the replacement rate (the ratio between the monthly pension and the last wage perceived by the worker) is very low. We compare the two pension systems evaluating the dynamics of the replacement rate.     

一类养老金精算成本模型

本文建立了一类养老金精算成本模型．该模型的基本思想是，当雇员加入养老金计划之后，与雇员的未来服务年限有关的养老金利益的精算现值由雇主（或雇主与雇员一起）用拨款的形式缴清，而与雇员在参加养老金计划之前的过去服务年限有关的养老金利益则另行处理．所以称该模型为应计利益精算成本模型．     

Evaluating the UK and Dutch defined-benefit pension policies using the holistic balance sheet framework

This paper compares the UK and Dutch occupational defined-benefit pension policies using the holistic balance sheet (HBS) framework. The UK DB pension system differs from the Dutch one in terms of the steering tools and adjustment mechanisms. In addition to the sponsor guarantee, the UK system has the protection from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) that guarantees DB pension schemes’ funding shortfalls if the sponsors of the schemes are insolvent. The paper first introduces a multi-period model called value-based ALM to value the embedded options implied by both UK and Dutch pension policies and build the HBS. The HBS framework allows us to have a holistic view on the real and contingent assets and liabilities of a pension scheme and evaluate the impact of introducing a new policy for the stakeholders of the pension scheme. Then, we compare the results of a typical UK policy with a typical Dutch one. The comparison suggests the UK policy is better for participants but worse for the sponsor compared to the Dutch policy. The UK policy is more generous in indexation and participants do not have the burden to contribute to the funding recovery of the pension scheme. The PPF provides protection of the benefits up to a certain level if the sponsor is insolvent, thus, participants in a scheme with a UK pension policy are exposed to limited downside risk. On the other hand, the sponsor of the pension scheme with the UK policy shoulders a heavier burden to contribute to the recovery of the pension funding shortfalls than that of the pension scheme with the Dutch policy.     

Collective adjustment of pension rights in ALM models

Collective adjustment of pension rights is a way to keep defined benefit systems tenable. In asset liability management (ALM) models presented in the literature these decisions are modeled both at the aggregate level of the liabilities as a whole and at a more detailed level. In this paper we compare the approximate aggregate approach to the accurate detailed approach for the average earnings scheme with conditional indexation. We prove that the aggregate approach leads to one-sided errors. Moreover, we show that for semi-realistic data these biases are considerable.     

Optimal DB-PAYGO pension management towards a habitual contribution rate

In this paper, we propose a new objective function, which reflects the costs of unstable contribution risk and discontinuity risk in DB-PAYGO pension system. The problem is to minimize the quadratic deviation between the actual contribution rate and a habitual target and the quadratic proportional deviation of the pension accumulation. A modified non-negative constraint of the contribution rate is added, which together with a stochastic habitual target process, causes difficulty in solving the minimization problem by Lagrange dual method. The results are split into two cases which depend on the habit-adjusted adequacy of the pension budget. In the inadequate case, the optimal contribution rate reveals a hump shape curve with respect to time, which is different from the exponential growth curve of the model with a fixed target. By moderately raising the contribution rate in the initial phase, it helps to increase the accumulation and reduce the contribution burden of the follow-up policyholders. Notably, the hump shape curve is a more practical policy, because of that the exponential growth curve raises anxiety about the unlimited growth of the contribution rate and harms the confidence in the sustainability of the pension fund. We also study the impacts of the certain trend in demography, and the uncertain fluctuations in salary and investment on the optimal control policies.     

应对长寿风险的分红年金:随机精算建模与应用

我国的商业养老保险作为养老金体系的重要组成部分,在实践中的发展比较缓慢,原因之一是保险公司缺乏长寿风险管理的经验。本文将探索我国商业养老保险使用分红年金管理长寿风险的可行性。研究该分红年金在给付规则和分红来源方面的特征,并基于实际数据,构建动态随机死亡率模型和随机收益率模型,采用蒙特卡洛随机模拟方法,比较分红年金和传统年金在待遇分布、资产和损失分布、破产概率等方面的特征,得出分红年金能够在精算公平原则下有效应对长寿风险,并且在待遇给付、偿付能力和盈利能力方面具有明显优势的结论。     

Pension fund investments and the valuation of liabilities under conditional indexation

This paper reviews the investment policy of collective pension plans. We focus on funds with a collective Defined Contribution character. We suggest two reasons to invest in equities: the lack of a well-developed market in index-linked bonds, and deliberate deviations from the Defined Benefit nature of the plan. Furthermore, this paper assesses the value of limited or conditional indexation options found in many plans.     

可持续的中国城乡居民养老保险体系的数学模型研究

考虑了替代率、缴费率、人口结构、分年龄段死亡率、经济增速、财政补贴、工资水平、投资效益,引入收缴率、通货膨胀率等当今影响养老保险的活跃因素,建立了"城乡结合"的中国城乡基本养老保险收支跨期叠代模型,并在此基础上进行优化.通过仿真,探讨了替代率和缴费率的合理区间.     

Intergenerational risk sharing in closing pension funds

We model intergenerational risk sharing in closing funded pension plans. Specifically, we consider a setting in which in each period, the pension fund’s investment and indexation policy is the outcome of a bargaining process between representatives of the then living generations. Because some generations might be under- or overrepresented in the board, we use the asymmetric Nash bargaining solution to allow for differences in bargaining powers. In a numerical study, we compare the welfare that the generations derive from the outcome of this repeated bargaining to the welfare that they would derive if a social planner’s optimal policy would instead be implemented. We find that as compared to the social optimum, older generations benefit substantially from the repeated bargaining, even if all generations are equally well-represented in the board. If older generations are relatively over-represented, as is sometimes argued, these effects are attenuated.     

A unisex stochastic mortality model to comply with EU Gender Directive

EU Gender Directive ruled out discrimination against gender in charging premium for insurance products. This prohibition prevents the use of the standard actuarial fairness principle to price life insurance products. According to current actuarial practice, unisex premiums are calculated with a simple weighting rule of the gender-specific life tables. This procedure is likely to violate portfolio fairness principles. Up to our knowledge, in the actuarial literature there is no unisex mortality model that respects the unisex fairness principle. This paper is the first attempt to fill this gap. First, we recall the notion of unisex fairness principle and the corresponding unisex fair premium. Then, we provide a unisex stochastic mortality model for the mortality intensity that is underlying the pricing of a life portfolio of females and males belonging to the same cohort. Finally, we calibrate the unisex mortality model using the unisex fairness principle. We find that the weighting coefficient between the males’ and females’ own mortalities depends mainly on the quote of portfolio relative to each gender, on the age, and on the type of insurance products. The knowledge of a proper unisex mortality model could help life insurance companies to better understanding the nature of the risk of a mixed portfolio.     

可持续的中国城乡居民养老保险体系数学模型

本文从我国现行养老金政策出发,利用灰关联分析得到养老金收支的影响因素的排序,建立中国城乡居民养老金收支模型.然后利用Logistic人口预测模型估计出不同替代率下2013-2035未来23年我国养老金缺口,并利用仿真方法算出保证我国养老保险体系的可持续性的替代率的合理区间为50%-70%.进一步分析影响替代率各因素的灵敏性,并考虑延迟退休、做实个人账户以及市场化投资等因素对模型进行改进.最后以养老金替代率为切入点,对退休年龄等模型参数的调整和有关措施进行了分析与评价.     

中国基本养老保险替代率精算模型及其应用

利用年金理论并结合1997年国务院《关于建立统一的企业职工基本养老保险制度的决定》文件,得到我国职工在不同缴费年限下基本养老保险替代率精算模型,并利用该模型对基本养老保险替代率进行模拟分析.这对于明确我国当前基本养老保险替代率及完善基本养老保险政策具有重要的理论指导意义和实际应用价值.     

Optimal asset allocation for aggregated defined benefit pension funds with stochastic interest rates

In this paper we study the optimal management of an aggregated pension fund of defined benefit type, in the presence of a stochastic interest rate. We suppose that the sponsor can invest in a savings account, in a risky stock and in a bond with the aim of minimizing deviations of the unfunded actuarial liability from zero along a finite time horizon. We solve the problem by means of optimal stochastic control techniques and analyze the influence on the optimal solution of some of the parameters involved in the model.     

Optimal Dynamic Control for the Defined Benefit Pension Plans with Stochastic Benefit Outgo

Abstract

This work is devoted to a continuous time dynamic pension funding model in a defined benefit plan of an employment system. We extend the analysis of some standard models by incorporating a source of uncertainty in the benefit outgo. The key assumption is that the random benefits increase on average at an exponential rate. We model the preference of the manager with the main objective of minimizing both the contribution rate risk and the solvency risk. Two different situations are studied regarding the investment decisions. In the first case, the fund is invested at a constant, risk-free rate of interests; in the second case, the promoter invests in a portfolio with a risky asset and a risk-free bond. We provide, in both cases, explicit expressions for the actuarial liability, normal costs, value function, and the supplementary contribution rate.     

中国城乡居民养老制度可持续性的精算研究

围绕我国城乡居民养老保险体系可持续化问题,从中国实际出发,分层次、多角度的分析了当前我国的养老保险制度.首先,针对中国养老保险基金问题,基于当前养老保险体制,分别从三个层次入手,建立中国城乡居民养老保险基金收支模型;其次,基于养老制度的可持续性,建立了养老金缺口模型,并对养老金缺口的未来趋势进行了合理预测;最后,对所建立的模型进行了评价及推广.     

Exploration of pension funding in case of exact vesting

A pension plan is said to be exactly vested if it provides in addition to the benefit available upon retirement, a benefit, upon termination for any cause prior to retirement, which is exactly equivalent to the actuarial accured liability for the terminating participant.The concept of exact vesting has simple application in defined contribution plans such as those of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. It is also feasible to develop the exact vesting concept for a defined benefit plan which uses an individual type of actuarial cost method. An exactly vested plan would have more individual equity than is available under customary vesting and early retirement provisions of defined benefit plans.In this paper, theory is developed for an exactly vested model plan in parallel to the theory for a pure pension model plan discussed in previous papers on pension funding dynamics.     

Investment policies and reinsurance for pension funds

A pension fund typically faces two sorts of risk. In addition to the actuarial risk, there is an investment risk stemming from the stochastic nature of the rate of return on reserves. These risks depend on the level of reinsurance and the investment policy chosen by the pension fund. The application of Borch's theorem and a result on ‘mutual funds’ make it possible for the optimal level of reinsurance and the optimal investment policy to be determined simulataneously. In particular, it turns out that a low level of reinsurance should never be combined with a cautious investment policy. In addition the paper shows how elements of capital and risk-theory can be combined in one model.     

Delta–Gamma hedging of mortality and interest rate risk

One of the major concerns of life insurers and pension funds is the increasing longevity of their beneficiaries. This paper studies the hedging problem of annuity cash flows when mortality and interest rates are stochastic. We first propose a Delta–Gamma hedging technique for mortality risk. The risk factor against which to hedge is the difference between the actual mortality intensity in the future and its “forecast” today, the forward intensity. We specialize the hedging technique first to the case in which mortality intensities are affine, then to Ornstein–Uhlenbeck and Feller processes, providing actuarial justifications for this selection. We show that, without imposing no arbitrage, we can get equivalent probability measures under which the HJM condition for no arbitrage is satisfied. Last, we extend our results to the presence of both interest rate and mortality risk. We provide a UK calibrated example of Delta–Gamma hedging of both mortality and interest rate risk.     

基于加权效用和VaR-PI约束下DC型养老金计划的最优资产配置

本文从养老金计划参与人和基金经理的双重视角出发,以最大化双方加权的期望效用为目标,研究了在最低保障和VaR约束下,DC养老金计划的最优资产配置问题。假设养老金计划参与人和基金经理均是损失厌恶的,分别用两个S型的效用函数来刻画双方的损失厌恶行为。VaR约束和加权的效用函数使得本文所研究的优化问题成为一个复杂的非凹效用最大化问题。利用拉格朗日对偶理论和凹化方法求得了最优财富和最优投资组合的封闭解。数值结论表明当更为看重养老金计划参与人的利益时,基金经理会采取更为激进的投资策略,VaR约束可以改进对DC养老金计划的风险管理。     

Bayesian modelling of financial guarantee insurance

In this paper we model the claim process of financial guarantee insurance, and predict the pure premium and the required amount of risk capital. The data used are from the financial guarantee system of the Finnish statutory pension scheme. The losses in financial guarantee insurance may be devastating during an economic depression (i.e., deep recession). This indicates that the economic business cycle, and in particular depressions, must be taken into account in modelling the claim amounts in financial guarantee insurance. A Markov regime-switching model is used to predict the frequency and severity of future depression periods. The claim amounts are predicted using a transfer function model where the predicted growth rate of the real GNP is an explanatory variable. The pure premium and initial risk reserve are evaluated on the basis of the predictive distribution of claim amounts. Bayesian methods are applied throughout the modelling process. For example, estimation is based on posterior simulation with the Gibbs sampler, and model adequacy is assessed by posterior predictive checking. Simulation results show that the required amount of risk capital is high, even though depressions are an infrequent phenomenon.