In our view, variable managed-volatility portfolios performed relatively well in 2019, benefiting from the momentum in the equity markets that prevailed through most of the year. This brief report will conclude our coverage of such portfolios for that year...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from February, 2020

February is usually when many new variable portfolios are registered in preparation for the May prospectus update season and such was again the case this year. During the month we also noticed quite a few interesting changes being made to investment platforms...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from January, 2020

In January multiple new variable insurance funds were filed with the SEC – including an ESG offering – while the most noteworthy changes to existing funds, in our view, involved sub-advisory replacements and proposed liquidations...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2019

This report is our last installment of our monthly coverage of notable variable insurance fund filings from 2019. In December we didn’t see many new fund registrations, but there was no shortage of changes and adjustments to investment platforms...

Since we started publishing The Soleares Report, at the end of each year have provided a review – like this one – of how the variable annuity industry fared based on currently-available data, which is intended to help our readers reflect on the recent past and prepare for internal planning meetings...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2019

This report contains our customary coverage of notable variable insurance fund filings from the prior month. During November we saw one new registration, while the most common changes were sub-advisory replacements, mergers and liquidations, as well as adjustments to fund fees...

In this commentary we’ll get caught up with two months’ worth of noteworthy variable insurance fund filing activity. During that time there were quite a few interesting developments, and new registrations...

An Update on Managed-Volatility Portfolios With Data Through 2Q19

In this report we’ll get caught up with our coverage of variable insurance managed-volatility portfolios, as we have just finished compiling data through the first half of this year...

During the month of August, we didn’t see a great deal of variable fund filing activity. One new registration came through, but the most prevalent occurrences were changes to sub-advisors, portfolio fees and expenses...

New Structured Annuities on the Way – Plus Notes from Other Filings

In this commentary we’ll get caught up with recent developments in structured annuities – there was a new registration and the launch of one that had been in the pipeline – and we’ll also cover some variable annuity filings...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July, 2019

In our view, July was a very busy month in terms of variable insurance fund filing activity, a time in which we saw a number of interesting developments that we’ll share in this commentary...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2019

This will be a fairly long commentary because variable insurance fund filing activity picked up nicely last month – among notable developments was the filing of a newly-formed trust containing a large number of fund registrations. Along with this report we’ll be updating our coverage of managed-volatility portfolios...

In our view, variable insurance portfolio filing activity was slow during March, thus this commentary will be a brief one compared to past fund reports. During the month we didn’t identify any new registrations, but we did see a good number of sub-advisory changes, and other adjustments...

This report will conclude our tracking of variable insurance managed-volatility portfolios for 2018, referencing data we have gathered from trust annual reports. In addition to trends in fund assets and returns, we will discuss refinements we have made to our data set...

Historically February is when many new variable funds are filed in preparation for the May prospectus update season when such funds will be added to variable contracts. That pattern was very much in effect this year; in addition, we saw numerous adjustments and changes...

This commentary contains our customary review of variable fund-related filings from the prior month. In December we saw a smattering of new registrations plus numerous investment platform changes, including sub-advisory replacements and proposed mergers...

If we were to characterize the year 2018 for the variable annuity business based on what we know thus far, we would call it a time of renewal, as sales started to recover, an improvement that has helped brighten prospects for the annuity industry as a whole...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2018

This commentary contains our customary review of variable fund-related filings from the prior month and a quarterly update on trends in variable managed-volatility portfolios with data through the third quarter...

In this commentary we’ll cover noteworthy variable fund filings from last month, a time when we saw multiple registrations of new funds of funds (F-of-Fs), some that will invest in underlying exchange-traded funds (ETFs), others that will seek to manage for volatility. We saw a large number of fund changes...

In this commentary we’ll provide our usual review of fund-related filings from last month as well as an update on trends in variable managed-volatility portfolios through the first half of the year...

Digging into Some Noteworthy Variable Annuity Product Filings

In recent weeks we’ve been noticing some interesting variable annuity product filings come through – most of them involving changes to existing contracts and benefits – and in this report we’ll report on them...

August was another lively month for variable fund-related filings as there were a few new registrations, some new classes, and a host of interesting changes...

VA Sales for Public Insurers Improved in 2Q18, Helping Lift the Industry

Variable annuity sales for most stock-traded insurers we follow regularly showed improvement in the second quarter, which no doubt contributed to the industry’s quarter-over-quarter rise. This report will be our customary quarterly rundown of what we gleaned from insurers’ earnings reports...

Just like the prior month, in June we saw a fairly substantial amount of variable insurance fund filing activity, including quite a few changes to investment platforms through mergers and liquidations...

In this report we’ll update our tracking of variable insurance managed-volatility portfolios, referencing asset and other data for the first quarter of this year. We will also point out a few ways we have added to our coverage of this subset of the fund universe...