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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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Spring Tweaking – VA Product Changes Emphasizing Income, Protection

So far this year we’re seen a number of variable annuity insurers start building in higher guaranteed annual withdrawal amounts (GAWAs) on their lifetime withdrawal riders. Some of these new schemes have been rather creative,...

A Look Ahead – Question Marks for the VA Business as Q2 Begins

Because of the diminished sales of variable annuities last year, we can’t help but wonder whether the industry can eventually participate more fully in the recovery of the financial markets – or, will it continue...

Insurers Are Filing New VA Benefits Well Before the May Update Season

It’s common practice for variable annuity insurers to use the prospectus update season to bring out new products or enhance existing ones. Usually we don’t see major changes start cropping up until a month or...

“Five at 65” – Enhancements of Variable Annuity Riders Are Picking Up Again

Innovation permeates the very core of the variable annuity business; in fact we’ve come to expect near-constant creativity from actuaries and product development specialists. The rate of movement may have slowed compared with years past,...

Sorting Through Notable Variable Annuity Product Developments

We continue to see an interesting mix of variable annuity contracts and features coming out, some following the trend towards the simpler and cheaper, others more fully loaded. Regardless of this diversity, we firmly believe...

“One From Column A” – Optionality Within VA Benefit Allocation Programs

To date, pretty much all variable annuity insurers impose investment restrictions on clients who purchase guaranteed living benefits, the balancing act is to do this while still affording some measure of choice, and in this...

VA Rider Design Trends – GLWBs That Stay Rich, But Address Risk Issues

In this commentary we will be discussing some of the newer variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) that insurers have been filing, many of these riders offering robust base growth rates, yet also incorporating...

Checking Up on Trends in Variable Annuity GMIBs – Changing, Mixing, Matching

On the variable annuity scene, insurers are still changing their guaranteed living benefits with great alacrity in response to market conditions, albeit less aggressively than in the past, and while most of this movement is...

Factors Influencing the Positioning of VA Benefits in the Current Environment

To continue with an opinion we expressed last week: over the remainder of the year we expect to see a mixture of aggression and retreat on the part of variable annuity insurers, as some will...