About a month ago I was catching up via phone with a longtime industry contact, who gave me a little food for thought I figured I’d share with you - it's about the topic of investment-only variable annuities (IOVAs)...

Much of the past two weeks I’ve been working on a number of projects, among them updating my spreadsheet of data related to variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios, and I intend to post a second quarter update on Monday. For a number of reasons, this time around I found the compiling exercise a rather tiring and perplexing one...

Temperatures here in New York City have risen of late, as well as humidity, typical of our summers. Last evening we endured torrential rain with thunder and lightning and we’re being hit with the same tonight. Not too many people are on the streets...

Last week I attended the annual LIMRA/LOMA/SOA Retirement Conference in Chicago and I probably should have posted something about it earlier, but I wanted to allow my impressions to percolate for a bit in my mind. Thus I’m hunkering down to share my thoughts with you today...

On Tuesday night, New York City was hit with heavy snowfall, and temperatures this week have fallen into the single digits at times. That’s provided a great opportunity for folks like me to hunker down at their desks and get caught up with long-procrastinated tasks. I’m feeling quite productive!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s celebration and are jumping into 2014 with optimism. To my mind, there are plenty of things to be positive about: variable annuity players are toning down their risks, other product types are gaining ground, and quite a few observers expect total sales to rise. The growing popularity of Deferred Income Annuities (DIAs) seems to be evidence that some investors have warmed up to the idea of receiving traditional annuity payouts in retirement...

As I write this, the new Soleares Research web site is not yet up and running, but I figured I’d get the ball rolling with my first blog post just to test out how it feels to write one. My intention is for the blog to be a forum where I can share my thoughts on various issues (not always related to the industry) in a thoughtful, less formal, way...