VA Industry Sales Growth in Q4 Looks Doubtful to Us, All Things Considered

As is our practice each quarter, we reviewed earnings results for selected stock-traded insurers we track regularly, and came to the conclusion that for most of them, variable annuity operations performed more or less in line with expectations, but with a few hiccups here and there. As for industry sales as a whole, we think they were probably flat or down for the quarter...