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Research & Reports
VUL Breeding: Hybrid Policies Mix Protection, Equity Exposure and Liquidity
Variable Universal Life (VUL) policies certainly have a lot going for them in terms of optionality and flexibility, with the insured being able to adjust the death benefit, the timing and level of premium payments,...
Shifting and Tweaking Going on Within VA Withdrawal Benefits for Life
It’s about time we issued one of our periodic updates on what’s happening in variable annuity lifetime withdrawal benefits, because they are so important to sales and the filing activity around them still vigorous. The...
VA Sales and the Opposing Themes of Staying Competitive – or Cost-Conscious
We recently took time to reflect on divergent trends within the pricing and structure of variable annuities, a topic that should become more “front-and-center” in the future and cut across distribution outlets, since products and...
Catching Up on Recent Variable Annuity Benefit Changes and Developments
We’ve identified a few brand-new variable annuity benefit guarantees filed over the past couple of months, but more frequently we’ve been seeing modifications of existing riders, such as clarifications to special provisions, pricing adjustments and...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2006
We identified 14 new variable insurance funds filed in the month of June, a fairly good number. In addition, activity was fairly energetic around sub-advisory and name changes, mergers, closings and other modifications, covering a...
“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...
“Getting Into Modeling” – The Latest in Variable Asset Allocation Programs
Insurers have long offered various types of asset allocation and rebalancing services to their variable contract holders, to help them diversify and manage the risk associated with their sub-accounts. In fact, the performance of models...
Considering Variable Product Commission and Revenue Sharing Programs
We’ve long been noting how variable annuity insurers are faced with multiple opposing pressures. On the one hand, critics of the business clamor for annuities that are easier to understand and less expensive than the...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2006
In the month of May we found just two new variable insurance portfolios filed, although we saw quite a few name changes, adjustments and new share classes which we’ll mention in our monthly look at...