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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 Arrivals – of New Variable Annuity Product Concepts and Revisions

Each year we look forward to the May prospectus update season – despite the onslaught of filings – because interesting storylines always seem to emerge during that time. In this commentary we’ll discuss a few...

Insurers are Reshaping Annuities to Offer Unique Income-Focused Guarantees

The annuity industry is now in a period where it is seeking to develop new product types, using the lessons learned during the heady days of the variable annuity arms race. It is abundantly clear...

Thanks to De-Risking, Sales Were Down for Leading VA Insurers in Q4

By the end of last week we finished reviewing the fourth-quarter earnings reports of selected publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly, and we came away with the suspicion that variable annuity industry sales were probably down...

Thinking About Retrenchment – and Related Themes Affecting the VA Market

Variable annuity product filing has been a bit slow of late, so in this commentary we will take a step back and reflect on the subject of retrenchment within the industry, how most insurers are...

VA Insurers Are Picking Up Where They Left Off – With More Product Changes

As we get fully into 2013 we’re noticing that a few variable annuity insurers are getting right back into the swing of things, by touching up their product offerings and coming out with new designs…

A Season of Change: VA Sales Fall as Insurers Cut Back on Their Products

The year 2012 was a time when insurers made reductions to their variable annuity products: these moves included the trimming of guarantees, fee increases, closures of contracts and riders, installation of tighter investment restrictions, cuts...

MetLife’s New Index Annuity – An Example of Reverse Engineering

Last week we shared a rumor that a few insurers were planning to come out with renditions of AXA Equitable’s Structured Capital Strategies, a hybrid index/variable annuity, and said we had not seen a filing...

Industry VA Sales Look Steady for Q3 – But Earnings Results Were Mixed

After reviewing the variable annuity business results of the group of stock-traded insurers we track regularly, we’re figuring that third quarter industry sales were flat to slightly up sequentially, and probably got a little lift...

Regarding Risk – and How VA Insurers’ Methods Are Evolving to Manage It

This year has been one of rapid change, as variable annuity insurers of all sizes have sought to reduce their product-related risks in one form or another, and we’re sure that anyone looking at all...