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Research & Reports

Soleares Research, LLC is a market research and consulting firm servicing the annuity and life insurance businesses. We provide, through our website, periodic articles that cover important industry trends; we also offer clients phone or on-site consultations, executive briefings and presentations. We pride ourselves on first-class customer service and responsiveness to our clients. We aim to be an indispensable resource to the marketplace.

Jackson to Suspend Death Benefit Sales, Pru Proceeds with IOVA

It’s been sort of slow going in the variable annuity product pipeline of late, however last week we saw a few interesting developments come through from Jackson National and Prudential: the former will be trimming...

It Looks Like for Most Insurers, VA Sales Were Down Again in 4Q13

We reviewed fourth quarter earnings results for selected publicly-traded insurers we track regularly and came to the conclusion that variable annuity industry deposits dropped for the quarter and the year as a whole. We think...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November and December, 2013

With this report we will get caught up with noteworthy variable insurance filings from the last two months of 2013. There were quite a few interesting developments during that time, particularly related to volatility-control funds…

In 2013, VA Sales Eased While Other Annuity Products Gathered Steam

Throughout most of 2013, variable annuity sales took a downward trajectory, due mostly to the de-risking undertaken by insurers, mirroring moves they had executed the year before. While net flows into VAs slowed, fixed and...

Concerning Directions in the Annuity Business in Late 2013

It's our opinion that the annuity business in the U.S. is showing signs of becoming more balanced in terms of its product offerings and sales practices. Some of this process of change is happening partly...

Concerning VA Industry Sales and Product Moves for the Rest of 2013

In this commentary we'll share our views on competitive conditions in the variable annuity space, and discuss emerging products that may influence sales over the remainder of this year, and beyond…  

Earnings Held Up for Insurers in Q3 – But VA Sales? Not So Much

It seems to us that most variable annuity insurers fared well this third quarter from an earnings standpoint, helped by a rise in the stock market. However VA sales were down for the group of...

Principal Financial to Offer a GLWB Exchange Program – Not a Buyback

It’s our opinion that vintage variable annuity benefits remain problematic for quite a few insurers, and we expect more de-risking measures to be taken over time.  Last week Principal Financial filed a program that will...

Jackson National Moves to Limit 1035s Over the Remainder of This Year

Last Tuesday Jackson National sent a letter to financial advisors announcing the temporary suspension of 1035 exchanges and qualified transfers of assets into three variable annuity contract suites effective October 25. In this commentary we’ll...