Research & Reports

During this prospectus update season we intend to be vigilant in tracking variable annuity product developments, and in this commentary we’ll provide some more perspective on an area in which we’re seeing a good deal...

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...

The stream of variable annuity-related filings moving through the SEC has been speeding up of late, and a common theme we keep noticing is that insurers are building in new forms of flexibility to their...

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...

It’s common practice for variable annuity insurers to use the prospectus update season to bring out new products or enhance existing ones. Usually we don’t see major changes start cropping up until a month or...

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,...

When fourth quarter variable annuity sales results come out, we’re convinced they will reflect a lack of participation by the industry in the improving equity markets – much as was the case in the prior...

We continue to see an interesting mix of variable annuity contracts and features coming out, some following the trend towards the simpler and cheaper, others more fully loaded. Regardless of this diversity, we firmly believe...

In the past, we have employed comparisons with the sporting world to describe competitive conditions in the variable annuity space, and we’re going to do so again in this, our first commentary of the New...