Applications of time-delayed backward stochastic differential equations to pricing, hedging and portfolio management in insurance and finance

Abstract

In this paper we investigate novel applications of a new class of equations which we call time-delayed backward stochastic differential equations. Time-delayed BSDEs may arise in finance when we want to find an investment strategy and an investment portfolio which should replicate a liability or meet a target depending on the applied strategy or the past values of the portfolio. In this setting, a managed investment portfolio serves simultaneously as the underlying security on which the liability/target is contingent and as a replicating portfolio for that liability/target. This is usually the case for capital-protected investments and performance-linked pay-offs. We give examples of pricing, hedging and portfolio management problems (asset-liability management problems) which could be investigated in the framework of time-delayed BSDEs. Our motivation comes from life insurance and we focus on participating contracts and variable annuities. We derive the corresponding time-delayed BSDEs and solve them explicitly or at least provide hints how to solve them numerically. We give a financial interpretation of the theoretical fact that a time-delayed BSDE may not have a solution or may have multiple solutions.