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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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Growing Focus on Annuity Exchanges – Fines are Levied, Regulations Updated

Given that tax-free 1035 exchanges are widely acknowledged to be a large portion of annuity sales, we think it’s important for companies working in the marketplace to monitor how these exchanges are being perceived and...

Impressions on the Variable Annuity Business in 2007 – Part II

In this report, our last of the year, we’ll conclude our two-part commentary summarizing key forces influencing the sale of variable annuities in 2007 – our main three being “features, shelf space and scale” –...

A Simpler Story – Insurers Move to Streamline VA Sub-Accounts, Features

In getting started with the New Year, we’ll comment on a growing tendency for insurers to trim the number of sub-account options and features on their variable annuities in order to make them simpler for...

On Revenue Sharing, Directed Brokerage Deals – More Disclosure is Coming

Variable product insurers and mutual fund companies have at times used creative means to pay for, or receive compensation from, financial firms they have relationships with, while not always revealing these arrangements to shareholders. Now...

Impressions on Consumer-Friendly Issues for the Variable Annuity Business

In our last report we discussed how insurers are building fee reductions into their variable annuities, which we think is good for the industry in that it may help counter some negative perceptions. This week,...

Insurers Build More Pricing Options into Their Variable Annuity Contracts

Lately insurers have started to introduce greater choice in variable annuity expense structures, probably due to the ongoing criticism of product fees by regulators, press and other observers, coupled with a sincere desire to provide...

“Making Qualifications” – Latest Objections to Annuities in Qualified Plans

The sale of annuities in qualified plans has been a controversial subject over the years and the target of a number of law suits alleging that the practice is inappropriate. Lately there have been some...

An Update on Variable Annuity Products and Features Filed in Recent Months

In the process of identifying the more important changes to variable annuity contracts and features this update season, we haven’t seen quite the volume of new ideas as in the past, but we can say...

A Few Comments on Equity-Indexed Annuities in Regards to the VA Business

While our primary concentration is on the variable insurance business, from time to time we will reflect on the equity-indexed annuity, or EIA, and now is a good time to do so. There are a...