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Research & Reports

Soleares Research, LLC is a market research and consulting firm servicing the annuity and life insurance businesses. We provide, through our website, periodic articles that cover important industry trends; we also offer clients phone or on-site consultations, executive briefings and presentations. We pride ourselves on first-class customer service and responsiveness to our clients. We aim to be an indispensable resource to the marketplace.
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Variable Annuity Sales from 1Q10 – Could The Industry Be Back on Track?

The fortunes of the variable annuity business are still largely dictated by the performance of companies with the most attractive guaranteed living benefits, and, based on some improvement we saw from a few insurers we...

GMABs and More – Currents of Activity in VA Prospectus Updates

Last week we saw a surge in SEC filings related to variable annuities – many of them May 1 prospectus updates – and in our next few reports we’ll comment on interesting things we found...

Spring Tweaking – VA Product Changes Emphasizing Income, Protection

So far this year we’re seen a number of variable annuity insurers start building in higher guaranteed annual withdrawal amounts (GAWAs) on their lifetime withdrawal riders. Some of these new schemes have been rather creative,...

VA Contract Considerations – And Assorted Notes on Other Matters

We’ve been providing frequent commentary lately about guaranteed living benefits – which we think is warranted since they are so integral to the variable annuity sales story these days – however this week we’ll focus...

Variable Annuity Sales from 4Q09 Reveal Uneven Patterns in the Industry

After reviewing fourth quarter variable annuity results of stock-traded companies we regularly monitor, we found a familiar mixed result – a few insurers did well while most others saw deposits decline – reflecting how the...

“Five at 65” – Enhancements of Variable Annuity Riders Are Picking Up Again

Innovation permeates the very core of the variable annuity business; in fact we’ve come to expect near-constant creativity from actuaries and product development specialists. The rate of movement may have slowed compared with years past,...

“One From Column A” – Optionality Within VA Benefit Allocation Programs

To date, pretty much all variable annuity insurers impose investment restrictions on clients who purchase guaranteed living benefits, the balancing act is to do this while still affording some measure of choice, and in this...

VA Insurers are Downshifting, Looking to Trim Risk on their GLWBs

During the first half of this year, a few variable annuity insurers were still selling relatively rich Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs), looking to grab market share at a time when most competitors were scaling...

Upward Market Movement Provided Relief to Insurers’ VA Risk Levels

The recovery in the financial markets that took place in the second quarter not only helped variable annuity sales bounce back for most insurers, another positive development was a reduction in the levels of risk...