Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-41/1/i/solution

Let . For , the resulting compound Poisson distribution has
Thus the merged claim size probability distribution is a rate-weighted mixture distribution, not an equally weighted mixture distribution unless the rates agree.
To prove this without any moment-generating function assumption, let be the characteristic function of a claim of type . Conditioning on its Poisson distribution count gives
Independence of the aggregate risks therefore gives
The weighted characteristic function inside is precisely that of the displayed mixture distribution. This is the transform of a sum of independent claims with independent count , proving the claim by uniqueness of characteristic functions. This is Poisson superposition of insurance portfolios. If , all risks make no claims almost surely and ; the severity law is then irrelevant.

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