Research & Reports
The Year 2020 Was Fraught With Challenges for Annuity Insurers
This will be our customary year-end report, based on what we know from U.S. annuity industry data through the third quarter. It certainly goes without saying that 2020 was a trying one for us all,...
An Update on New VA Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits Filed in 2019
In this report we’ll provide an update on new variable annuity guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWBs) filed with the SEC this year, as we’ve seen a few come through recently – some on new contracts...
The Deferred Income Annuity – A Product With a Hopeful Future
In this report we’ll discuss deferred income annuities (DIAs), products that, in our view, were built to provide less risky forms of guaranteed income as compared to living benefits, and to answer longstanding objections to...
Variable Annuity Sales Were Down in Q3 for Leading Stock-Traded Insurers
We just completed our third quarter review of variable annuity business results of selected stock-traded insurers and found that for all of them, sales fell sequentially during that time period. Market volatility was the most-often...
Thoughts on Q1 Industry Sales – And Various Product Developments
Not long ago, first quarter annuity industry sales figures were released by the major tracking firms and we thought results were about as expected – although we were thinking fixed annuities would do better…
Interesting Options – Found In This Month’s Variable Annuity Product Filings
In our view, this May variable annuity prospectus update season hasn’t been all that eventful – although we must admit we are still sifting through all the filings. In this commentary we’ll discuss a few...
Random Reflections from the LIMRA/LOMA/SOA Retirement Conference
Last week we attended the annual LIMRA/LOMA/Society of Actuaries Retirement Industry Conference held in Washington, D.C., and in this commentary, as we have done in the past, we won’t try to completely recap the event,...
New Lincoln National Contracts – and Other VA Product Filing News
In this report we’ll discuss variable annuity filing activity from the past few weeks. Of particular note was the registration of new contracts from Lincoln National, aimed at IRA rollover money, which will include a...
Identifying Trends in Variable Annuity Industry Product Changes in 2014
Since the start of the year we have been steadily tracking modifications to variable annuity products and in this commentary we’ll share what we think are prevailing trends from around the industry…
