The paper discusses how to assess risk by computing the best upper and lower bounds on the expected value E[φ(X)], subject to the constraints E[Xⁱ] = µ_i for i = 0, 1, 2, . . . , n. φ(x) can take the form of the indicator function φ(x) = 𝕀_(−∞,K](x) in which the bounds on Pr(X ≤ K)...

There has been a surge of interest in recent years from defined benefit pension plan sponsors in de-risking their plans with strategies such as “longevity hedges” and “pension buyouts” (Lin et al., 2015). While buyouts are attractive in terms of value creation, they are capital intensive...

We provide a new method, the “MV CVaR approach”, for managing unexpected mortality changes underlying annuities and life insurance. The MV CVaR approach optimizes the mean-variance tradeoff of an insurer's mortality portfolio, subject to constraints on downside risk. We apply the method of...

Given the rising cost of maintaining defined benefit (DB) pensions, there has been a surge of activities in recent years by DB plan sponsors to transfer their pension risk through strategies such as buy-ins and buy-outs. As buy-in and buy-out transaction pipelines grow, insurers actively...

In this paper, we employ the theory of real option pricing to address problems in the area of operational risk management. Particularly, we develop a two-stage model to help firms determine the optimal suspension-reactivation triggers in the events of pandemics. In the first stage, we propose a...

Recently, a lot of attention has been focused on developing portfolio allocation models that take into account the asymmetric nature of asset return distributions. In this paper, we extend Krokhmal, Palmquist, and Uryasev's approach by using CVaR-like constraints in the traditional portfolio...