We examine the conditions under which life insurer customers can use a policy loan to protect the unguaranteed cash value in their life insurance policies and annuity contracts from insurer insolvency, and thereby provide market discipline for life insurers. Consistent with policyholders using policy loans to protect their cash value, our empirical evidence indicates that insurers’ policy loan growth rates are negatively associated with measures of insurers’ financial strength, specifically their capital ratios. We also find evidence that the negative association is stronger for insurers that focus on selling annuities.

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市场纪律和政策性贷款

我们研究人寿保险公司客户可以使用保单贷款的条件，以保护其人寿保险保单和年金合同中的无担保现金价值免受保险公司破产的影响，从而为人寿保险公司提供市场纪律。与投保人使用保单贷款来保护其现金价值的情况一致，我们的经验证据表明，保险公司的保单贷款增长率与保险公司的财务实力指标（特别是其资本比率）呈负相关。我们还发现证据表明，对于专注于销售年金的保险公司来说，负相关性更强。