Research & Reports
Continuing Coverage of Public Insurers’ Variable Annuity Results of 2Q07
This report picks up where we left off last week in our monitoring of second-quarter variable annuity sales results for the publicly-traded insurers we track regularly. We found it significant that VA deposits increased for...
A Simpler Story – Insurers Move to Streamline VA Sub-Accounts, Features
In getting started with the New Year, we’ll comment on a growing tendency for insurers to trim the number of sub-account options and features on their variable annuities in order to make them simpler for...
Seeing VA Business Priorities Revealed Through Public Insurers’ Q3 Results
The third quarter was a mixed bag for the nine major public variable insurers we regularly track, as all saw sales levels fall sequentially, but apparently these companies don’t feel the results were troubling and...
Impressions on Consumer-Friendly Issues for the Variable Annuity Business
In our last report we discussed how insurers are building fee reductions into their variable annuities, which we think is good for the industry in that it may help counter some negative perceptions. This week,...
Insurers Build More Pricing Options into Their Variable Annuity Contracts
Lately insurers have started to introduce greater choice in variable annuity expense structures, probably due to the ongoing criticism of product fees by regulators, press and other observers, coupled with a sincere desire to provide...
A Few Comments on Equity-Indexed Annuities in Regards to the VA Business
While our primary concentration is on the variable insurance business, from time to time we will reflect on the equity-indexed annuity, or EIA, and now is a good time to do so. There are a...