Saudi Arabia has now opened its markets to foreign investors in line with its strategy to diversify its economy. However, investors need to feel confident that Saudi enterprises are being monitored and regulated appropriately. This study identifies the impact of improvements in Saudi corporate...

The employer-sponsored life insurance (ESLI) market is particularly susceptible to adverse selection due to community-rated premiums, guaranteed issue coverage, and the existence of a well-functioning individual market as a substitute. Using administrative payroll and healthcare claims data from...

The risk-based capital (RBC) ratio, an insurance company's financial soundness system, evaluates the capital adequacy needed to withstand unexpected losses. Therefore, continuous institutional improvement has been made to monitor the financial solvency of companies and protect consumers' rights,...

Life insurance profitability depends on reliable mortality risk projections and pricing. While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions around the world, this is a temporary mortality shock likely to dissipate. In this paper, we investigate the long-run impact of COVID-19 on life insurance...

Special-rate life annuities are life annuity products whose single premium is based on a mortality assumption driven (at least to some extent) by the health status of the applicant. The health status is ascertained via an appropriate underwriting step (which explains the alternative expression...

Life insurers sell savings contracts with surrender options, allowing policyholders to prematurely withdraw guaranteed surrender values. Surrender options move toward the money when interest rates rise. Hence, higher interest rates raise surrender rates, as we document for the German life...