Edition

Understanding Complex Assets in the Life Insurance and Annuity Industries

Background and Purpose

Complex assets, or structured assets, backing annuity liabilities have become a key enabler to the success of annuity products. Examples of these structured asset classes include Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs), Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). While relatively newer to the insurance industry, these assets have grown as a percentage of insurers‘ investment portfolios to over 14%1 at year-end 2023 (10% in 2019). The complexity of these assets has also increased and has come to incorporate more novel underlying collateral.2

The purpose of this project is to create a resource for actuaries and other insurance professionals to enhance industry knowledge of these assets and their risk-return profiles, along with implications to insurers and the various areas of actuarial practice. A better understanding of these assets can help optimize risk management and decision making around the risks and benefits of these assets within the life insurance and annuity industries.

Research Objective

The Product Development Section, Committee on Finance Research, Financial Reporting Section, Reinsurance Section and Smaller Insurance Company Section (“Sponsors”) are seeking researchers to summarize the emerging scope of complex asset designs and underlyings, and the use of complex assets in the life and annuity industry as compared to traditional public corporate bonds. Using industry knowledge and subject matter expertise, literature review, modelling, and/or other original research, the researchers will perform a study addressing the following questions:

  • What is driving the use of complex assets in the life insurance and annuity industries and why?
  • What are the current most common structures and underlyings for complex assets and what are the emerging trends?
  • What drives variability in cash flows and performance?
  • How different and how much more volatile are the market value of these assets compared to public corporates?
  • How do these assets perform in different severities of economic shock events?
  • How much correlation do these assets have with each other and with public corporates?
  • How to quantify the liquidity risk to the insurer of holding a given percentage of its portfolio in these assets?

Note that the list above is not meant to be exhaustive but merely examples of proposed topics that may be researched. The use of specific examples and/or case studies is encouraged. Considerations of both U.S. and offshore perspectives are welcome.

The researchers will summarize the results of the study in a report suitable for publication on the Society of Actuaries Research Institute website.

Proposal Requirements

To facilitate the evaluation of proposals, the following information should be submitted:

  1. Resumes of the researcher(s), including any graduate student(s) expected to participate, indicating how their background, education and experience bear on their qualifications to undertake the research. If more than one researcher is involved, a single individual should be designated as the lead researcher and primary contact. The person submitting the proposal must be authorized to speak on behalf of all the researchers as well as for the firm or institution on whose behalf the proposal is submitted.
  2. An outline of the approach to be used (e.g. literature search, model, etc.), emphasizing issues that require special consideration. Details should be given regarding the techniques to be used, collateral material to be consulted, and possible limitations of the analysis.
  3. A description of the expected deliverables and any supporting data, tools or other resources.
  4. Cost estimates for the research, including computer time, salaries, report preparation, material costs, etc. Such estimates can be in the form of hourly rates, but in such cases, time estimates should also be included. Any guarantees as to total cost should be given and will be considered in the evaluation of the proposal. While cost will be a factor in the evaluation of the proposal, it will not necessarily be the decisive factor.

    Please note that as a policy, the SOA Research Institute generally does not provide funding to cover academic institution overhead expenses.

    As a guide for developing the project budget, please review the Historical Project Cost Guide (see Appendix)
  5. A schedule for completion of the research, identifying key dates or time frames for research completion and report submissions. The Sponsors is interested in completing this project in a timely manner. Suggestions in the proposal for ensuring timely delivery, such as fee adjustments, are encouraged.
  6. Other related factors that give evidence of a proposer's capabilities to perform in a superior fashion should be detailed.

Selection Process

The Sponsors will appoint a Project Oversight Group (POG) to oversee the project. The POG is responsible for recommending the proposal to be funded. Input from other knowledgeable individuals also may be sought, but the POG will make the final recommendation, subject to Society of Actuaries Research Institute (SOA) leadership approval. An SOA staff research actuary will provide staff actuarial support.

Questions

Any questions regarding this RFP should be directed to Research-ML@soa.org.

Notification of Intent to submit Proposal

If you intend to submit a proposal, please email written notification by September 23, 2024 to Research-ML@soa.org.

Submission of Proposal

Please email your proposal to Research-ML@soa.org; proposals must be received no later than October 2, 2024. It is anticipated that all proposers will be informed of the status of their proposal by the end October 2024.

Conditions

The selection of a proposal is conditioned upon and not considered final until a Letter of Agreement is executed by both the Society of Actuaries Research Institute and the researcher.

The Society of Actuaries Research Institute reserves the right to not award a contract for this research. Reasons for not awarding a contract could include, but are not limited to, a lack of acceptable proposals or a finding that insufficient funds are available. The Society of Actuaries Research Institute also reserves the right to redirect the project as is deemed advisable.

The Society of Actuaries Research Institute plans to hold the copyright to the research and to publish the results with appropriate credit given to the researcher(s).

The Society of Actuaries Research Institute may choose to seek public exposure or media attention for the research. By submitting a proposal, you agree to cooperate with the Society of Actuaries in publicizing or promoting the research and responding to media requests.

The Society of Actuaries may also choose to market and promote the research to members, candidates and other interested parties. You agree to perform promotional communication requested by the Society of Actuaries Research Institute, which may include, but is not limited to, leading a webcast on the research, presenting the research at an SOA meeting, and/or writing an article on the research for an SOA newsletter.

Conflict of Interest

You agree to disclose any of your material business, financial and organizational interests and affiliations which are or may be construed to be reasonably related to the interest, activities and programs of the Society of Actuaries Research Institute.

Appendix

The cost ranges below are intended as a guide for budgeting project costs for proposals in response to SOA Research Institute Request for Proposals (RFP). Please note these figures span the 33rd to 66th percentiles for all projects as well as projects that involve a specific approach (lit review, survey, etc.). They are based on historical costs over several recent years. Expected costs for some RFPs may fall outside these ranges depending on the nature of the work and resources required for completion.

All Contracted Projects

This category includes all contracted projects that the Institute has undertaken within the last several years.

The 33rd-66th percentile project costs range is $25,000 - $50,000.

Literature Reviews

This category includes projects that involved only a literature review or the cost for the portion of a larger project that included a literature review.

The 33rd-66th percentile project costs range is $15,000 - $20,000.

Surveys

This category includes all projects that had a survey as their primary component.

The 33rd-66th percentile project costs range is $28,000 - $55,000.