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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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About Optionality – in the Newest GLWBs and Income-Taking Methods

It’s our view that variable annuity insurers right now are experimenting with contract and rider designs that are geared to provide greater flexibility than ever before, both from the company’s perspective and that of its...

Musings on the VA Industry as Q1 Ends – and on Recent Product Filings

The first quarter will conclude tomorrow and it’s our view that variable annuity business sales probably did not pick up very much, if at all, during that time period…

Brief Thoughts on 2014 Annuity Sales – and the Future of the Business

We reviewed fourth quarter and full-year 2014 annuity industry sales and they came out pretty much as we expected they would – variable annuity production was down but fixed annuities, led by those of the...

VA Industry Sales Growth in Q4 Looks Doubtful to Us, All Things Considered

As is our practice each quarter, we reviewed earnings results for selected stock-traded insurers we track regularly, and came to the conclusion that for most of them, variable annuity operations performed more or less in...

Forethought Registers New VA Contract With Enriched GLWBs

For the most part, variable annuity insurers have been scaling back on the generosity of their guaranteed benefits, but there are a few out there who are not afraid to offer rather aggressive features, and...

Getting Clarity on Transamerica’s Recent VA Product Moves

Last week we noted how Transamerica filed to remove optional guaranteed death and living benefits from one of its variable annuity contracts – something we found quite intriguing – and in this report we will...

VA Sales in 2014 Were Slow Again, Reflecting a Retooling Environment

Each year we devote the last commentary of December to taking a quick look back at the past year in the variable annuity business, and we’ll do so again this time, and also make some...

Sizing Up the Playing Field – More Thoughts on 3Q14 Industry Sales

In this commentary we’ll provide more of our observations on annuity sales in the third quarter, and consider the competitive landscape as we enter the holiday season…

An Update on VA Industry Filing Activity at the Start of December

Activity along the variable annuity product pipeline has been somewhat slow of late, reflecting the fact that most insurers are retooling their offerings – and yet recently we’ve noticed a company, MetLife, file new guaranteed...