Modeling Joint Lifetimes of Couples by Using Bivariate Phase-type Distributions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
2 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, Canada.
10.22034/jirss.2025.2046272.1084
Abstract
Many insurance products and pension plans provide benefits which are related to couples,
and thus under influence of the survival status of two lives. Some studies show the future lifetime of couples is correlated. Three reasons are available to confirm this fact: (1) catastrophe events that affect both lives, (2) the impact of spousal death and (3) the long-term association due to common life style.
Dependence between lifetimes of couples could have a financial impact on insurance companies and pension plans providers.
In this paper, we use a health index called physiological age in a Markov process context by that we model aging process of joint and last survivor statuses. Under this model, future joint lifetime of couples follows a bivariate phase-type distribution. The model has physical interpretation and closed-form expressions for actuarial quantities and owns tractable computation for the other ones. We use the model to pricing products relevant to couples annuities and life insurances.
Keywords
Subjects

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Volume 23, Issue 2
December 2024
Pages 117-136

  • Receive Date 20 November 2024
  • Revise Date 18 March 2025
  • Accept Date 17 April 2025