subscriber-login-icon
Subscriber Login

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.

Early Signs Point to Headwinds for the Variable Annuity Marketplace in 2012

Based on recently released industry sales figures, as well as the kinds of signals we’ve been getting from leading insurers, we are of the opinion there will be strong downward pressure on variable annuity sales...

VA Insurers Are Taking Measured Steps in Adjusting Their Products

It seems to us that most variable annuity insurers lately have been exercising great care in making changes to their contracts and benefits in response to competitive conditions. In recent weeks we have seen more...

Departures, De-Risking Dampened Variable Annuity Sales in 1Q12

As we usually do on each quarter, we compiled variable annuity sales results for 10 stock-traded insurers we watch on a regular basis, because performance of this group has proven to be a good early...

On Finding Capacity – During a Stressful Time for the Annuity Business

In this report we’ll share what we thought were key takeaways from the Insured Retirement Institute’s 2012 Marketing Summit held last week in New York City, and try to put those thoughts in perspective with...

Early Thoughts on 1Q12 – and Directions, Pressures in the VA Industry

Last Friday the first quarter ended and we must confess to thinking that it will be hard to forecast how the variable annuity industry performed during that time (not that it’s been all that easy...

“Bowing Out” – Hartford’s Departure from the VA Space and What it May Portend

Hartford’s decision to discontinue sales of individual annuities has triggered a number of related events in recent days, and we get the feeling that more interesting developments are yet to come. Moreover we believe that...

VA Insurers are Taking Divergent Paths in this Period of Uncertainty

The way we see it, variable annuity insurers are moving in one of two directions these days: either de-risking, or enhancing their products with an eye toward moving up the market share ranks. What this...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from January and February, 2012

We’ve arrived at the point in the year when the rate of SEC filings related to variable insurance funds increases as insurers touch up their investment platforms for the prospectus update season. In this report,...

The Price of De-Risking: Sales for Most VA Issuers Dropped in 4Q11

After reviewing variable annuity sales of selected publicly-traded insurers from the fourth quarter of 2011, we’re of the opinion that, for that time period, industry-wide deposits declined a bit sequentially. However for the full year,...