In recent years, considerable effort has been directed toward establishing the nature of the investment behaviour of life insurance companies. In this dissertation an extended portfolio analysis model was developed for the simultaneous determination of the efficient composition of insurance and investment activities of a life insurance company. This was done within a model that takes advantage of the existing finance foundations and the concepts and techniques of modern demand system analysis. Unlike current models which used quadratic programming techniques and are interested in the construction of efficient sets, we have used a utility maximization approach. A two parameter portfolio model was constructed utilizing elements of utility theory and of the theory of insurance. The model provided us with the proportion of assets held in the balance sheet as well as which liabilities are used to raise the necessary capital. The model developed has sufficient empirical content to yield hypotheses about life insurance portfolio behaviour and thus was tested using appropriate econometric techniques. A comparative static analysis yielded elasticities of substitution between financial assets and liabilities. The estimation of these elasticities in the context of a flexible functional form model, forms a central part of this dissertation. More specifically, by utilizing a mean-variance portfolio framework and a general Box-Cox utility function we were able to model the demand for assets and liabilities. by an insurance company. On empirical grounds we found that, in general, the square root quadratic utility function best fits the data. We also tried to evaluate the square root quadratic approximation by showing that, broadly speaking, it yields signs for elasticities of substitution which are consistant with the theory. A by-product of the model developed is the ability to compare stock and mutual life insurance companies. The common belief that mutual companies follow a riskier path in the way they conduct their business was supported by the results in this study. The results obtained from the study are-of significant importance since life insurance companies have substantial obligations to millions of households in the economy. Furthermore, despite the extraordinary decline in the importance of the life insurance industry in the bond and mortgage markets during the sixties and the seventies, the industry is still a major supplier of funds to those markets. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 K92 / Master of Science

Changes and challenges that have occurred during the last couple of years, have forced life insurance companies to make certain strategic decisions in order to remain competitive. Life insurance companies have to monitor their surrounding environment in order to create opportunities to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. This study intends to contribute to the competitive advantage as well as to the profitability of life insurance companies. Franchising in the financial service industry in South Africa, as an alternative distribution channel, formed the focus of this study. The life insurance industry is struggling to come to terms with the wave of regulations being implemented in the industry. Because franchising provides an opportunity for people without business experience and due to the changing environment, a framework for managing such a business plays a major role in the success of the business. Through the use of a survey an empirical study was done to test the relationship of concepts that will contribute to the development of a framework for a sustainable franchise in the life insurance industry. The various concepts were discussed and brought into context with the objectives of the study. The research study shows that franchising can be a viable option as an alternative marketing channel in the life insurance industry. The main findings of the study contribute to the development of the framework for managing a sustainable franchise in the life insurance industry in South Africa. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Changes and challenges that have occurred during the last couple of years, have forced life insurance companies to make certain strategic decisions in order to remain competitive. Life insurance companies have to monitor their surrounding environment in order to create opportunities to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. This study intends to contribute to the competitive advantage as well as to the profitability of life insurance companies. Franchising in the financial service industry in South Africa, as an alternative distribution channel, formed the focus of this study. The life insurance industry is struggling to come to terms with the wave of regulations being implemented in the industry. Because franchising provides an opportunity for people without business experience and due to the changing environment, a framework for managing such a business plays a major role in the success of the business. Through the use of a survey an empirical study was done to test the relationship of concepts that will contribute to the development of a framework for a sustainable franchise in the life insurance industry. The various concepts were discussed and brought into context with the objectives of the study. The research study shows that franchising can be a viable option as an alternative marketing channel in the life insurance industry. The main findings of the study contribute to the development of the framework for managing a sustainable franchise in the life insurance industry in South Africa. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Asset Liability Management is relevant to, and critical for, the sound management of the finances of any organization that invests to meet its future cash flow needs and capital requirements. For a life insurance company in particular, it is an important component of the actuarial work in the company. What an insurance company sells to customers is a promise. Cash flow testing is such a process of testing the insurance company’s ability to keep its promises. The purpose of this report is to provide a brief introduction of the assets and liabilities of an insurance company and how cash flow testing is done in Prophet, an actuarial software used in the industry. / text

Title: Parameterization of claims distribution in non-life insurance Author: Bc. Mária Špaková Department: Department of Probability and Mathematical Statistics Supervisor: RNDr. Michal Pešta Ph.D., MFF UK Abstract: This paper deals with the parameterization of claim size distributions in non-life insurance. It consists of the theoretical and the practical part. In the first part we discuss the usual distributions of claims and their properties. One section is devoted to extreme values distributions. Consequently, we mention the most known methods for parameter estimation - the maximum likelihood method, the method of moments and the method of weighted moments. The last theoretical chapter is focused on some validation techniques and goodness-of-fit tests. In the practical part we apply some of the discussed approaches on real data. However, we concentrate mainly on the large claims modeling - firstly, we select a reasonable threshold for our data and then we fit the claims by the generalized Pareto distribution together with the introduced parameterization procedures. Based on the results of the applied validation methods we will choose appropriate models for the biggest claims. Keywords: parameterization, non-life insurance, claims distribution.

The risk capital has to be kept by insurance company to cover unexpected looses. In our thesis we focus on different approaches to calculation of risk capital. One part is concentrated on derivation of Solvency I regime, both for life and nonlife insurance. In addition, we characterize riders of life insurance that are avaliable on the Czech market. In next part of our thesis we set up our own model of risk capital calculation. We consider these risks: mortality, expense, lapse and interest rate risk. For numerical calculations we chose accidental death rider, so we included its risk also into our model.

This thesis deals with an issue of claims reserving for non-life insurance. The issue is approached in a sense of analytical calculation and stochastic modelling. First, Chain-ladder, Bornhuetter-Ferguson, Benktander-Hovinen and Cape-Cod method are introduced. In following chapters, we try to find related stochastic underlying models including Generalized linear models and Mack's distribution-free approaches, we analyze second moments of claims estimates for each of the methods and examine alternative Merz-Wüthrich approach to reserve risk measurement. At the end, bootstrap algorithm and estimates are suggested and simulation results are compared with analytic ones.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2015. / The main purpose of the study is to determine which value drivers of economic value added (EVA) are most important. That is, what are the main determinants of the overall company value? The three main questions raised in the study are: (1) How sensitive is total EVA to changes in each of the various value drivers? (2) Which of the value drivers are more important in managing economic value? (3) Is there a combination of these value drivers that best explain EVA as a group? The study, which adopts the Stewart (1991) definition of EVA, covers the life insurance sector in South Africa, specifically focusing on the following companies: Discovery Holdings, Liberty Holdings, MMI Holdings, Old Mutual plc, and Sanlam Ltd. It covers the period 2004-2014 and uses variance analysis and principal component analysis to identify the main drivers of EVA. Five main drivers of EVA were identified namely; underwriting, asset management, costs, opportunity cost and strategic investments.

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