Efficient Hedging Methodology Applied to Equity-Linked Life Insurance

In this paper we study efficient hedging and its applications to the pricing of equitylinked life insurance contracts. We devote our attention to the pure endowment contracts with a flexible guarantee. In our setting, these insurance instruments are based on two risky assets of the market controlled by the Black-Scholes model during the contract period. The first asset is responsible for the maximal size of future profit while the second provides a flexible guarantee for the insured. The insurance company is considered as a hedger of a maximum of two risky assets as a contingent claim in this market. The contract is exercised if the insured is still alive at the maturity time and cannot be perfectly hedged in view of a positive survival probability of a client. To provide an appropriate risk-management in connection of such a contract, the company should exploit some imperfect hedging forms. Here we propose the use of efficient hedging with a power loss function. Specifying developments in this area, we create the pricing methodology for the insurance contracts under consideration in terms of a generalized Margrabe’s formula. The results are illustrated by a numerical actuarial analysis with the indices Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Industrial Average