Research & Reports
VA Insurers Are Revising Their Benefits to “Ratchet Down” Risk
To continue discussing our theme of last week, we’re sure that current financial market conditions are forcing variable annuity insurers to re-evaluate the living benefit guarantees they are selling. Third quarter results should provide us...
Musing on the State of Variable Annuities During the Current Market Turmoil
Recently we’ve been contemplating the “value proposition” of the variable annuity, how the product might be positioned and sold given the existing market climate. Earnings season is now underway and we think results from last...
An Update – Directions in Variable Annuity Guaranteed Living Benefit Assets
Recently we devoted some more time to sifting through insurers’ financial documents to gather data on variable annuity guaranteed living benefit account values, because we believe the data provide clues as to product priorities around...
Atypical Designs in Variable Annuity GLWBs Sold in the State of New York
Anyone who’s been around the industry for awhile knows that the state of New York does things differently than most other jurisdictions, usually placing very firm restrictions on policies and features before they are approved....
VA Guaranteed Accumulation Benefits – More Popularity in the Offing?
In the variable annuity marketplace guaranteed living benefits have certainly proven their worth, although there are some types that have just not gotten as much acceptance as others for various reasons. Even so, it’s our...
An Up-and-Coming Product Line – VAs for Defined Contribution Plans, Rollovers
As more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, financial services firms will be competing over who will manage the trillions of dollars these folks have socked away in their defined contribution (DC) plans. We anticipate a...
Our Summer Studies Will Involve Gathering More Data on VA Products, Features
One of our objectives for the upcoming third quarter – traditionally a time each year when variable annuity sales tend to tail off regardless of how the market is doing – will be to pore...
Insurers Are Ironing Out Details of Group Annuity Certificate Products
Even though not even two months has elapsed, much activity has occurred since we last weighed in on new group annuity certificate products that were built to wrap lifetime withdrawal benefits around retail mutual funds...
Market Volatility Persists, Impacting Public Insurers’ VA Results in 4Q07
Usually at the end of each year variable annuity sales rebound from the slow period of the summer, however the fourth quarter of 2007 contained a mixture of good and bad for the public insurers...
