Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:54:13.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Immunization Strategies for Funding Multiple Liabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Extract

A number of recent papers have shown that it is possible for an investor to immunize a portfolio of default and option-free coupon bonds so that the return realized over a given planning period will never be less than that promised at the time the bonds were purchased. In this way, a future fixed dollar liability may be discharged with certainty by acquiring an asset portfolio with a market value equal to the present value of the liability and setting its appropriate duration equal to the time remaining to the date of discharge. However, most investors have more than one liability to discharge. In his seminal article in 1952, F. M. Redington showed that a stream of liabilities may be immunized if an asset portfolio having the same present value as the liabilities is selected so that:

1. its duration is equal to the duration of the liabilities; and

2. “the spread of the value of asset-proceeds about the mean term (duration) should be greater than the spread of the value of the liability” ([16], p. 191).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Business Administration, University of Washington 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1]Bierwag, G. O.Immunization, Duration, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 12 (12 1977), pp. 725741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2]Bierwag, G. O.. “Measures of Duration.” Economic Inquiry, Vol. 16 (10 1978), pp. 497507.Google Scholar
[3]Bierwag, G. O.. “Dynamic Portfolio Immunization Policies.” Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 3 (04 1979), pp. 2341.Google Scholar
[4]Bierwag, G. O.; Kaufman, George G.; Schweitzer, Robert; and Toevs, Alden L.. “Risk and Return for Active and Passive Bond Portfolio Management: Theory and Evidence.” Journal of Portfolio Management, Vol. 8 (Spring 1981), pp. 2736.Google Scholar
[5]Bierwag, G. O.; Kaufman, George G.; and Toevs, Alden L.. “Portfolio Immunization and Stochastic Process Risk.” Journal of Bank Research (forthcoming).Google Scholar
[6]Bierwag, G. O.; Kaufman, George G.; and Toevs, Alden L.. “Recent Developments in Bond Portfolio Immunization Strategies.” In Innovation in Bond Portfolio Management: Duration Analysis and Bond Portfolio Management, Bierwag, G., Kaufman, G., and Toevs, A., eds. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press (forthcoming).Google Scholar
[7]Bierwag, G. O.; Kaufman, George G.; and Toevs, Alden L.. “Single Factor Duration Models in a General Equilibrium Framework,” Journal of Finance, Vol. 37 (05 1982), pp. 325338.Google Scholar
[8]Cox, John C.; Ingersoll, Jonathan E. Jr; and Ross, Stephen A.. “Duration and Measurement of Basis Risk.” Journal of Business, Vol. 52 (01 1979), pp. 5160.Google Scholar
[9]Ezra, D. Don. “Immunization: A New Look for Actuarial Liabilities.” Journal of Portfolio Management. Vol. 3 (Winter 1976), pp. 5053.Google Scholar
[10]Fisher, Lawrence, and Weil, Roman L.. “Coping with the Risk of Interest Rate Fluctuations: Returns to Bondholders from Naive and Optimal Strategies.” Journal of Business, Vol. 44 (10 1971), pp. 408431.Google Scholar
[11]Fong, Gifford, and Vasicek, O.. “A Risk Minimizing Strategy for Multiple Liability Immunization.” Working paper (1980).Google Scholar
[12]Ingersoll, Jonathan E. Jr; Skelton, Jeffrey; and Weil, Roman. “Duration Forty Years Later.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 13 (11 1978), pp. 627650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13]Kaufman, George G.Measuring Risk and Return for Bonds: A New Approach.” Journal of Bank Research, Vol. 8 (Summer 1978), pp. 8190.Google Scholar
[14]Khang, Chulsoon. “Bond Immunization When Short-Term Rates Fluctuate More than Long-Term Rates.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 14 (12 1979), pp. 10351090.Google Scholar
[15]Khang, Chulsoon. “A Dynamic Global Portfolio Immunization Theorem in the World of Multiple Interest Rate Changes.” Center for Capital Market Research, University of Oregon (1979).Google Scholar
[16]Redington, F. M.Review of the Principle of Life Office Valuations.” Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, Vol. 18 (1952), pp. 286340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar