Research & Reports
Diverse Thoughts on Directions in the VA Industry, Topics to Keep Tabs On
Second-quarter earnings season for insurers is just getting underway and we’re quite curious to see how variable annuity sales and flows held up for the leading companies, given the many stressors – from without and...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2008
With this commentary we’re catching up again with our monthly reporting on variable insurance filings, in June we noticed more initial registrations than we were expecting, however we believe this activity reflects the fact that...
Summertime in the Variable Annuity Business – Not as Slow as You Think
Recently, in compiling information and data for our reports we’ve been sorting through many regulatory filings, and will continue to do so of course, but this week we’re going to pause a bit from those...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from April and May, 2008
Normally we publish a report each month on variable insurance fund highlights but over the recent past, so much has been happening with variable annuity living benefits and contracts that we ended up foregoing that...
VA Income Benefits Are Evolving to Offer New Forms of Guaranteed Income
We believe that Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefits (GMIBs) are still formidable weapons in the variable annuity benefit arsenal, they have been around for awhile and many financial advisors still find them quite attractive. While innovation...
As Went the Market, So Went the Industry – VA Results of Public Insurers in 1Q08
Based on first quarter variable annuity sales of public insurers we track regularly – and some early estimates of how the industry fared – the first quarter of 2008 was a period where industry deposits...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2008
This commentary is our regular look back at notable SEC filings of variable insurance funds from the previous month. In March we did not see many new registrations, but there were numerous adjustments of different...
Sketching Out Issues in the VA Space – in Anticipation of 1Q08 Sales
As we post this report, the insurance sector is entering earnings season and we’re looking forward to listening in on the conference calls because they always contain good nuggets of information about the variable annuity...
More Reconnaissance on the VA Arms Race – What’s Happening with GLWBs
We think most of our readers would agree that the competition in the variable annuity business within Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) constitutes the largest portion of the living benefits arms race, and this year...