Toward a Unified Valuation Model for Life Insurers

In the pre-reform era, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) dominated the Indian life insurance market with a market share close to 100 percent. But the situation drastically changed since the enactment of the IRDA Act in 1999. At the end of the FY 2012-13, the market share of LICI stood at around 73 percent with the number of players having risen to 24 in the countrys life insurance sector. One of the reasons for such a decline in the market share of LICI during the post-reform period could be attributed to the increasing competition prevailing in the countrys life insurance sector. At the same time, the liberalization of the life insurance sector for private participation has eventually raised issues about ensuring sound financial performance and solvency of the life insurance companies besides protection of the interest of policyholders. The present study is an attempt to evaluate and compare the financial performances, solvency, and the market concentration of the four leading life insurers in India namely the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (ICICI PruLife), HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Limited (HDFC Standard), and SBI Life Insurance Company Limited (SBI Life), over a span of five successive FYs 2008-09 to 2012-13. In this regard, the CARAMELS model has been used to evaluate the performances of the selected life insurers, based on the Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) as published by IMF. In addition to this, the Solvency and the Market Concentration Analyses were also presented for the selected life insurers for the given period. The present study revealed the preexisting dominance of LICI even after 15 years since the privatization of the countrys life insurance sector.

Download Full-text

The Relative and Incremental Valuation Effects of Embedded Value Disclosure by Life Insurers: Evidence from Cross-Listed Firms in the U.S.

Accounting Horizons ◽

10.2308/acch-51015 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 327-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samir M. El-Gazzar ◽

Rudolph A. Jacob ◽

Scott P. McGregor

Keyword(s):

Empirical Studies ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Accounting Standards ◽

Cash Flows ◽

Market Prices ◽

Joint Project ◽

Listed Firms ◽

Valuation Effects ◽

Life Insurers ◽

Embedded Value

SYNOPSIS European life insurers began disclosing embedded value information (EV) over a decade ago due to concerns with traditional local accounting standards. EV is an estimate of the present value of future net cash flows from in-force life insurance business. However, U.S.-based life insurers have yet to adopt this disclosure, although several surveys and empirical studies suggest that EV disclosure provides valuable information in assessing life insurers' performance. This paper examines the incremental valuation effects of EV disclosure in the presence of U.S. GAAP. We utilize a sample of cross-listed life insurers as surrogates to assess the valuation effects of EV disclosures for U.S. life insurers. Our empirical results show a higher association between EV and stock market prices than those of traditional accounting metrics such as earnings or book value. The results also show that EV has incremental explanatory power beyond those of traditional U.S. GAAP accounting measures. Our findings provide vital input to FASB and IASB as they currently engage in a joint project to develop uniform globally acceptable, comparable accounting standards for life insurers.

Download Full-text