Research & Reports
Hard to Determine a Clear Direction for VA Industry Sales in 2Q16
Based on our review of results of publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly, variable annuity sales fell for most, with at least one bright spot. Thus we are unsure whether the recent downward movement in industry...
We Suspect VA Industry Sales Were Probably Down Again in 1Q16
We just finished conducting our review of first quarter results of publicly-traded insurers we monitor regularly, and for all of them, variable annuity sales fell, thus we suspect the industry experienced a similar result…
Variable Annuity Industry Sales in 4Q15 – Hard to Get a Handle On
As is our custom, we reviewed fourth quarter results of publicly-traded insurers we monitor regularly, and found it hard to come up with a strong indication as to where the industry finished for that period....
VA Product Update – Covering Filings From Late Last Year, Into 2016
In this report we’ll get caught up with variable annuity product filings from the past few months that we found interesting. In the batch we saw multiple instances where insurers sought to add rate sheet...
An Update on Recent Filings – Including a New Structured Annuity
This report will cover a few interesting new product filings we’ve seen of late from around the industry, including the registration of a new structured annuity…
Notes on Interesting New Structured Annuities Filed Lately with the SEC
In this commentary we’ll cover a topic we haven’t visited for a while: structured annuities, as a few new ones were filed with the SEC recently, some of them updates to existing contracts. We’ll also...
Random Reflections from the LIMRA/LOMA/SOA Retirement Conference
Last week we attended the annual LIMRA/LOMA/Society of Actuaries Retirement Industry Conference held in Washington, D.C., and in this commentary, as we have done in the past, we won’t try to completely recap the event,...
Another Structured Annuity is On The Way – This Time from ING
To date, only a few insurers have come out with structured annuities, which contain a basket of index-linked options with buffers to protect investors against a set percentage of losses. That’s why we were somewhat...
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...