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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.
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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...

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...

More FIAs Are Offering Vol Management – to Capitalize on Consumer Interest

Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, we have seen a variety of volatility management strategies developed around the industry, from creative hedging strategies devised by variable annuity insurers to hedge their benefit risks, to...

VA Sales Appear to Have Continued Their Downward Movement in 1Q13

We have just completed our review of variable annuity results for publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly and, based on the performance of those companies, we suspect the industry saw a drop in deposits in the...

Spring Arrivals – of New Variable Annuity Product Concepts and Revisions

Each year we look forward to the May prospectus update season – despite the onslaught of filings – because interesting storylines always seem to emerge during that time. In this commentary we’ll discuss a few...

Insurers are Reshaping Annuities to Offer Unique Income-Focused Guarantees

The annuity industry is now in a period where it is seeking to develop new product types, using the lessons learned during the heady days of the variable annuity arms race. It is abundantly clear...

Thanks to De-Risking, Sales Were Down for Leading VA Insurers in Q4

By the end of last week we finished reviewing the fourth-quarter earnings reports of selected publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly, and we came away with the suspicion that variable annuity industry sales were probably down...

Thinking About Retrenchment – and Related Themes Affecting the VA Market

Variable annuity product filing has been a bit slow of late, so in this commentary we will take a step back and reflect on the subject of retrenchment within the industry, how most insurers are...