Research & Reports

If we were to liken the variable annuity industry to a ship on the high seas, we’d have to say it has been tossed around by contrary winds of late. Choppy equity markets and low...

Now that the third quarter has concluded, we’ve started estimating how the variable annuity industry might have fared over that time period. From what we’re hearing, it looks like troubling conditions in the financial markets...

Based on the kind of shifts in variable annuity sales that took place during the second quarter, it’s hard for us to guess at how the industry might perform going forward. One thing we can...

The second quarter is traditionally one of the best for variable annuity sales, and we are hearing estimates from our contacts that the industry performed well this time around. However we’re also getting the distinct...

It probably no longer bears repeating, but an insurer’s variable annuity deposits nowadays are directly connected to the relative strength of its guaranteed benefits. We are in a period where this rule of thumb is...

Today Hartford announced the launch of new variable annuity contracts and benefits as part of an initiative to re-energize its sales in the U.S. In this commentary we’ll give our thoughts on this move, given...

Variable annuity sales for stock-traded insurers we cover regularly were split down the middle in the first quarter of this year, one half reporting some measure of improvement sequentially while the rest did not fare...

Final variable annuity sales figures for last year were released not long ago, and, much as we expected, the industry showed improvement. The question foremost in our minds is whether the upward trend can continue...

After reviewing fourth quarter variable annuity sales results of stock-traded insurers in our regular coverage group, we strongly suspect that the industry fared well during that time period as well. What remains to be seen...