How sub-optimal are age-based life-cycle investment products?

Khemka, G., Steffensen, M., and Warren, G.J., 2021, International Review of Financial Analysis, 73(2021).

After decades of economic expansion, China is transitioning to meet the insurance needs of its aging and increasingly affluent population. Of particular interest to insurers and reinsurers is China’s life insurance industry, which is likely to be globally significant due to its size and scale of opportunity. The long term nature of life insurance will also see it play a key role in China’s financial and capital markets. By uniquely accounting for demographic, economic and insurance-specific factors, we estimate the long term size of China’s life insurance market, giving an important indication of the scale of its future influence.