We introduce a general model to describe the risk process of an insura
nce company. This model allows for stochastic rate of return on invest
ments as well as stochastic level of inflation, thus in theory enablin
g a decision maker to choose between insurance and investment risk. In
the first part of the paper we discuss the model in itself and in the
second pan the problem of finding the probability of eventual ruin is
posed. We obtain some integro-differential equations that in some cas
es lead us to the exact probability of eventual ruin and in other case
s to inequalities. Examples are given showing that stochastic economic
factors may have a serious impact on this probability.