Systematic and non-systematic mortality risk in pension portfolios

Abstract

We study the effects of non-systematic and systematic mortality risks on the required initial capital in a pension plan, in the presence of financial risks. We discover that for a pension plan with few members the impact of pooling on the required capital per person is strong, but non-systematic risk diminishes rapidly as the number of members increases. Systematic mortality risk, on the other hand, is a significant source of risk is a pension portfolio.