
Research & Reports
Lincoln National Communicates Confidence in Its Annuity Business
Investors and analysts are very curious as to how variable annuity operations may affect the health and profitability of insurers, especially since companies are now pulling away from selling rich guarantees. As we noted in...
VA Insurers Say They Are Managing Benefit Risks – But Still Want to Trim Them
It’s been a while since we checked in on variable annuity guaranteed benefit risk levels, and we were reminded of that fact by MetLife’s recent investor day, where the topic was discussed at length. We...
VA Insurers Continue to Revise Existing Benefits to Trim Risks – and Sales
Over the past year or so we have seen an increasing number of insurers file variable annuity guaranteed benefits that are not entirely new, but rather slightly de-risked versions of existing ones. Last week we...
VA Sales Appear to Have Continued Their Downward Movement in 1Q13
We have just completed our review of variable annuity results for publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly and, based on the performance of those companies, we suspect the industry saw a drop in deposits in the...
A Variety of Tweaks to Contracts, Riders are Coming Through in May Updates
Over the past few weeks we have been occupied with sifting through annual variable annuity prospectus updates, and within some filings we saw adjustments to in-force contracts and benefits that we think provide evidence that...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2013
This March we didn’t see a great deal of variable insurance fund filings with the SEC. Most of the activity revolved around manager changes and the trimming down of fund platforms through mergers and liquidations…
Some Speculation on Q1 Performance of the VA Business – and Other Matters
Now that the first quarter has ended and we are well into the next one, we’ll share some thoughts on how we think the variable industry may have done so far this year. We think...
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...
Jackson National Jumps to Top of VA Industry Sales Standings for 4Q12
From some of our sources we heard that Morningstar was to report final fourth-quarter 2012 variable annuity sales data today, and, if early indications prove correct, we think Jackson National took the No. 1 spot...