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Immunization and Hedging of Longevity Risk

Elderly couple researching pension options

Changyu Liu and Michael Sherris

Pension funds and life insurers offering annuities hold long term liabilities linked to longevity. Risk management of life annuity portfolios aims to immunize or hedge both interest rate and mortality risks. Standard fixed interest duration-convexity hedging must be adapted to allow for both interest rate and longevity risk.

We develop an immunization approach along with a delta-gamma based approach allowing for both risks incorporating models for mortality and interest rate risk. The immunization and hedge effectiveness of fixed-income coupon bonds, annuity bonds, as well as longevity bonds, is compared and assessed using simulations of portfolio surplus outcomes for an annuity portfolio. 

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