Centro de Documentacion de Fundación MAPFRE - Lapse-and-reentry in variable annuities

MAP20180035111

Lapse-and-reentry in variable annuities / Thorsten Moenig, Nan Zhu

Sumario: Section 1035 of the current U.S. tax code allows policyholders to exchange their variable annuity policy for a similar product while maintaining taxdeferred status. When the variable annuity contains a long-term guarantee, this "lapse-and-reentry" strategy allows the policyholder to potentially increase the value of the embedded guarantee. We show that for a return-ofpremium death benefit guarantee this is frequently optimal, which has severe repercussions for pricing. We analyze various policy features that may help mitigate the incentive to lapse and compare them regarding the insurer's average expense payments and their posttax utility to the policyholder. We find that a ratchet-type guarantee and a state-dependent fee structure best mitigate the lapse-and-reentry problem, outperforming the typical surrender schedule. Further, when accounting for proper tax treatment, the policyholder prefers a variable annuity with either of these three policy features over a comparable stock investment

En: The Journal of risk and insurance. - Nueva York : The American Risk and Insurance Association, 1964- = ISSN 0022-4367. - 03/12/2018 Volumen 85 Número 4 - diciembre 2018 , p. 911-938

1. Seguros de vida riesgo . 2. Pensiones . 3. Renta variable . 4. Seguridad Social . 5. Jubilación . 6. Ahorro . 7. Estrategias . 8. Productos de seguros . 9. Estadísticas . 10. Estados Unidos . I. Zhu, Nan . II. Title.