Research & Reports

In this report we’ll get caught up with two types of variable portfolios: those that are “defined outcome” in nature – in that they protect investors against a portion of investment losses – and those...

In May we saw a moderate amount of variable fund filing activity: a few new registrations, a smattering of managerial changes, and more details on defined outcome portfolios that commenced operations. We will provide our...

This commentary contains our coverage of noteworthy variable fund news from April, a time which was relatively slow in terms of filing activity, although there were a few significant developments…

This commentary contains our customary coverage of noteworthy variable fund filings from the prior month, and also includes some observations on trends in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) portfolios, citing data through the end of...

It is usually the case that numerous new variable portfolios are registered in February – in order for them to be added to prospectuses during the May update period – and that pattern held true...

This spreadsheet updates our coverage of variable Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) portfolios through the third quarter of last year; at quarter’s end we counted 28 portfolios in operation, which held almost $6.45 billion in...

As was the case the previous month, January activity on the variable fund front was rather brisk, as there were a number of new registrations, several in the bond category. There were also plenty of...

We found December variable fund filing activity to be lively, as we saw some new registrations that will be used in a unique reorganization effort, plenty of developments related to defined outcome portfolios, plus assorted...

In November we saw just one new variable fund registration, while the rest of the filing activity that month was moderate and concentrated largely on manager replacements and investment platform consolidation. In this report we...