
Research & Reports
Update: Variable Defined Outcome Portfolios
This spreadsheet contains data on variable defined outcome portfolios through the first quarter of 2025. At quarter’s end we counted 23 portfolios in operation which held nearly $528 million in assets…
An Update on Variable Defined Outcome Portfolios Through 1Q25
This first quarter, assets under management in variable defined outcome portfolios increased modestly; other than that, there were relatively few developments. In this report we will get caught up with our coverage of these portfolios…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2025
For the month of March, we have much to report concerning variable insurance portfolios, as there were a number of interesting registrations along with a great deal of managerial changes on insurers’ platforms…
Update: Variable ESG Portfolios
This spreadsheet is our final 2024 update to our coverage of variable Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) portfolios; at the close of the fourth quarter we counted 27 portfolios in operation, which held $8.1 billion...
An Update on Variable Defined Outcome Portfolios Through 4Q24
Through last fourth quarter, the number of variable defined outcome portfolios in operation stayed steady, but assets under management in them increased; in this report we will conclude our coverage of these portfolios for 2024…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from February, 2025
In February, we saw fewer new variable portfolio registrations than we were used to in past years, but there were a few. There was much more activity in terms of manager replacements and other changes...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from January, 2025
In January, variable fund filing activity was slow in our view, but that’s typical, as new registrations tend to get submitted the following month in order to be ready for the May prospectus update season....
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2024
Variable fund filing activity was pretty substantial in December, with new registrations, new share classes and an assortment of changes. A good number of the latter are to take place this year…
The Year 2024 in Review: The Upward Momentum Continued
As of this writing, annuity industry sales for 2024 were on pace for another record – this despite a falling interest rate environment – leading us to wonder if there’s “nowhere to go but up.”...