Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2020
During October we saw a number of new variable fund registrations and not surprisingly, most of them will invest in fixed income – an asset class that has managed to generate positive flows in recent...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2020
This report contains our customary look back at notable variable fund filings from the prior month, in which we saw a good deal of activity for the autumn, with two insurers registering new portfolios and,...
An Update on Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios Through 2Q20
This is our second quarter snapshot of developments in variable managed-volatility portfolios, in which we will cite data we compiled from trust semi-annual reports. As we usually do this time each year, we will have...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July and August, 2020
This report will cover noteworthy variable insurance fund developments from the months of July and August. We usually see light filing activity during the summer, but this time around it was pretty lively, with multiple...
A Steady Stream of VA Product Filings – Calls for Another Update
It wasn’t that long ago that we provided an update on filings of new variable annuity contracts and guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWBs). Well, since then even more have entered the pipeline making it necessary...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2020
In June we noticed no new variable insurance fund registrations come through but did see a great deal of activity involving changes to investment platforms, such as sub-advisory replacements and adjustments to fund fees and...
An Update on Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios Through 1Q20
We admit we are a little late in providing our coverage of variable managed-volatility portfolios for the first quarter – and we are sorry for the delay. This commentary will contain highlights from the data...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2020
In our view, the rate of variable insurance fund filing activity was slow in May but that was to be expected since new portfolios set to debut this year would have been registered well in...
Stock-Traded Insurers’ VA Sales Held Up in Q1, Despite Market Drop
First quarter variable annuity sales for most stock-traded insurers we track regularly improved compared to the prior year, once again due to lower interest rates making the product look better than fixed and indexed annuities....