In the classical risk model, the insurer's surplus is
where is initial capital, is a Poisson process of rate , and the claim sizes are positive independent and identically distributed random variables with expected value , independent of the claim-arrival process. Premium flows in at constant rate . A positive relative safety loading means
so premium income exceeds the expected claim cost per unit time. The ruin stopping time is , with if ruin never occurs, and the ultimate ruin probability is .
Assume the stated positive adjustment coefficient exists and that the claim moment-generating function is finite at . The Lundberg inequality is
Here is a proof, including the stopping argument. By conditioning on the Poisson distribution of , the random-sum transform identity gives
The adjustment coefficient equation is . Consequently the exponential surplus martingale
has expected value one at every finite time. More strongly, the claim process has independent increments, so for ,
Thus is a nonnegative continuous-time martingale for the filtration generated by arrivals and claim sizes. For a fixed finite horizon , the optional stopping theorem at the bounded stopping time gives . This bounded use is legitimate: the stopped values belong to the closed martingale on given by conditional expectations of the integrable variable .
On , the surplus is negative, and therefore . By nonnegativity on the complementary event,
The ruin events increase to as increases, so continuity of probability gives the claimed Lundberg inequality. No expectation identity at the unbounded stopping time is needed. Positive loading by itself does not guarantee a positive adjustment coefficient for every claim law; the existence assumption is used here.
For the exponential distribution of claim sizes, for . Substitution in the adjustment coefficient equation gives
Discard the zero root and divide by . The unique positive solution is
which lies strictly inside the finite-transform domain.
For deterministic claim sizes, the claim moment-generating function is . Define . It satisfies , , , and as . Thus its strict convexity gives exactly one positive zero , with for .
Put . Since , we have . Hence
It follows that
Thus the deterministic-claim Lundberg inequality provides a smaller upper bound at positive capital; at zero capital both bounds equal one. This is a special case of deterministic claims maximize the adjustment coefficient at fixed mean and loading: fixing the mean and loading, variability lowers the exponential decay coefficient relative to deterministic claims. The ordering of these upper bounds alone is not a proof that the actual ultimate ruin probabilities are ordered.