Understanding the Behavior and Hedging of Segregated Funds Offering the Reset Feature

Segregated funds have become an extremely popular Canadian investment vehicle. These instruments provide long-term maturity guarantees and often include complex option features. One controversial aspect is the reset feature, which provides the ability to lock in market gains. Recently, regulators have announced that firms offering these products will be subject to new capital requirements. This paper discusses the effects of volatility, interest rates, investor optimality, and product design on the cost of providing a segregated fund guarantee. For each scenario, the authors provide the appropriate management expense ratio (MER) that should be charged and demonstrate the current liability using a given fixed MER. The paper also investigates intuitive reasons that cause the reset feature to require such a dramatic increase in the hedging costs. Finally, an approximate method for handling the reset feature is presented that can be computed very efficiently, provided the correct proportional fee is charged.