Research & Reports
Taking Inventory of Relevant VA Industry Themes Through 3Q09
Now that summer is winding down, that means we’ll soon be in a familiar time between the end of a quarter and when official data come out, when we’ll be conversing with contacts, swapping anecdotal...
Upward Market Movement Provided Relief to Insurers’ VA Risk Levels
The recovery in the financial markets that took place in the second quarter not only helped variable annuity sales bounce back for most insurers, another positive development was a reduction in the levels of risk...
2Q09 Brought a Degree of Recovery for the Markets – and the VA Business
It’s once again time for us to offer our quarterly commentary on variable annuity sales for the stock-traded insurers we regularly monitor, and to discuss relevant themes facing the industry. We’ll start off by saying...
Q1 Results Brought New Accounting Adjustments for the VA Business
First quarter earnings season concluded last week for the publicly-traded insurers we regularly monitor, and for most of them, variable annuity deposits and net flows declined, much as we expected. What surprised us were accounting...
The “De-Risking” Process Ramps Up Around the Variable Annuity Business
We’re figuring that the myriad reductions variable annuity insurers have been making to their benefits and features signal the potential for reduced deposits and net flows for the industry, not to mention big shifts in...
A Discussion of Variable Annuity Industry Hot Topics as 2Q09 Gets Underway
Just as we were this time last year, we’re very curious about the performance of the variable annuity business in the first quarter – especially given the kind of difficult market conditions we’re in –...
Sliding Finish to a Volatile 2008 as Downward Markets Jolt VA Players
Fourth-quarter earnings season has almost concluded and in this report we’ll offer our customary review of variable annuity operating results for selected publicly-traded insurers. As we expected, most companies went through a difficult time during...
Shining a Spotlight on GMIBs – Competitors Look for the Lucky Number
Following up on our last report covering lifetime withdrawal benefits, this week we’re going to focus on variable annuity Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefits (GMIBs), because tweaks and modifications have been taking place that we think...
