Excess of loss reinsurance ($g(x)=\min (x,M)$)

Per-claim reinsurance under which the insurer retains each claim up to a level $M$ and the reinsurer pays its positive part $(x-M{)}_{+}$. The annual retained amount is a sum of capped claims, so it is generally different from the cap of the annual sum in aggregate stop loss reinsurance.

For positive claim sizes with finite second moment in a compound Poisson distribution aggregate of parameter $\lambda$, the two excess of loss reinsurance payouts are $\min (X,M)$ and $(X-M{)}_{+}$. The derivative of their total aggregate variance is $2\lambda (M\overline{F}(M)-\mathbb{E}[(X-M{)}_{+}])$. Thus the displayed condition characterizes stationarity. When the tail probability is positive it says that the retention equals the mean residual life. Global minimality requires an additional sign or comparison argument.

For exponential distribution claims of mean $\mu$ and compound Poisson distribution count parameter $\lambda$, the total party variance under excess of loss reinsurance is $g(M)=2\lambda {\mu }^2(1-(M/\mu )e^{-M/\mu })$. Its derivative is $2\lambda e^{-M/\mu }(M-\mu )$, so $M=\mu$ is the unique global minimum, with value $2\lambda {\mu }^2(1-e^{-1})$.

For a positive claim and $r>0$, the tail integral formula for moments gives the displayed expression. In particular the first moment is ${\int }_0^M\overline{F}(x)dx$ and the raw second moment is $2{\int }_0^{M}x\overline{F}(x)dx$. If the claim law has a density, capping adds an atom of a measure at $M$ with mass $\mathbb{P}(X\ge M)$.