scholarly journals The Informational Content Of Voluntary Embedded Value (EV) Financial Disclosures By Canadian Life Insurance Companies

Author(s):  
Jacques Préfontaine ◽  
Jean Desrochers ◽  
Lise Godbout

The informational content and relevance to external stakeholders of voluntary financial disclosures by commercial banks is now becoming more widely recognized. For instance, banks voluntary disclosures of liquidity, interest rate and market risk metrics have been bound to be closely associated with market value of equity and credit ratings. So far, there has been very scarce published research on investigating the informational content and relevance to external stakeholders of voluntary financial disclosures by life insurance companies. In order to improve upon this situation, this paper studies and reports the informational content of voluntary embedded value (EV) financial disclosures by Canadian life insurance companies. As opposed to traditional statutory balance sheet and earnings reporting, EV voluntary disclosure attempts to estimate the present value of future earnings generated by a life insurers current book of various insurance businesses. The preliminary results presented in this study indicate that EV voluntary financial disclosures communicate intrinsic informational content and provide value relevance to external stakeholders in the sense that they were found to be closely associated with life insurers market value of equity.

Author(s):  
Jacques Préfontaine ◽  
Jean Desrochers ◽  
Lise Godbout

The informational content and relevance to external stakeholders of voluntary financial disclosures by commercial banks is now becoming more widely recognized. For instance, banks voluntary disclosures of liquidity, interest rate and market risk metrics have been found to be closely associated with market value of equity and credit ratings. So far, there has been very scarce published research on investigating the informational content and relevance to external stakeholders of voluntary financial disclosures by life insurance companies during the recent period of market turmoil. In order to improve upon this situation, this paper updates previous findings and reports on the informational content of voluntary embedded value (EV) financial disclosures by Canadian life insurance companies during the 2000-2010 time period. As opposed to traditional statutory balance sheet and earnings reporting, EV voluntary disclosure attempts to estimate the present value of future earnings generated by a life insurers current book of various insurance businesses. The preliminary results presented in this study indicate that recent EV voluntary financial disclosures failed to communicate intrinsic informational content and to provide value relevance to external stakeholders in the sense that they were not found to be closely associated with life insurers market value of equity and credit ratings during the recent 2007-2010 period of market turmoil.


Author(s):  
Joy Chakraborty ◽  
Partha Pratim Sengupta

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.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Chodorow-Reich ◽  
Andra Ghent ◽  
Valentin Haddad

Abstract We construct a new data set tracking the daily value of life insurers’ assets at the security level. Outside of the 2008–2009 crisis, a ${\$}$ 1 drop in the market value of assets reduces an insurer’s market equity by ${\$}$ 0.10. During the ?nancial crisis, this pass-through rises to ${\$}$ 1. We explain this pattern by viewing insurance companies as asset insulators, institutions with stable, long-term liabilities that can ride out transitory dislocations in market prices. Illustrating the macroeconomic importance of insulation, insurers’ market equity declined by ${\$}$50 billion less than the duration-adjusted value of their securities during the crisis.


2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 405-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc De Ceuster ◽  
Liam Flanagan ◽  
Allan Hodgson ◽  
Mohammad I. Tahir

Core business and financial market risks are not easily reduced by standard operating procedures in insurance companies. Derivatives theoretically provide a cost effective vehicle to hedge these risks. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of derivative usage as well as the extent of derivative usage in the Australian insurance industry in both life and general insurance companies for the period 1997–1999. Empirical results for the Australian life insurance industry in general confirm the findings of UK and US based research. However, the Australian general insurance industry does not appear to follow the conclusions of previous literature. Our results indicate that for life insurers, the determinants of derivative usage were size, leverage and reinsurance. For the general insurance industry the determinants were size and the extent of long tail lines of business written. As regards the determinants of the extent of derivative usage, these were size and asset-liability duration mismatches for life insurers. For the general insurance industry the determinants of the extent of derivative usage were size, the extent of long tail lines of business written, and the reporting year.


Ad Americam ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
William Wise

An important part of having slaves as a labor force is insuring their lives and their income. This paper explores whether antebellum life insurance companies insuring slaves did so appropriately and/or responsibly from a financial perspective. Determining whether antebellum life insurance companies did so is essential, as life insurance is a major segment of the economy of most countries and hence it is vital that life insurers perform well and are viable for the benefit of other industries and national economies, including with respect to the antebellum United States. This is the first study to investigate several critical financial elements, including premiums, expenses and mortality, of antebellum life insurance companies regarding feasibility. One characteristic of the results is that if firms employed a suitable expense assumption then the premium did not have a high enough mortality assumption and vice-versa. Additionally, most premium increases used regarding hazardous occupations, sum insured limits and location failed to adequately account for the associated increased mortality. The overall result is that, from a financial perspective, antebellum life insurers had trouble accounting for slave life insurance appropriately and/or responsibly.


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