
Research & Reports
MetLife Becomes Latest Insurer to File an Investment-Only VA
For a while now we had a suspicion MetLife would come out with an investment-only variable annuity, since so many of its peers have done so. As it turns out the insurer filed one not...
VA Insurers’ Profits Were Up in 2Q14 – But Sales? Perhaps by a Little
During the second quarter publicly-traded insurers we monitor regularly experienced increased profitability within their variable annuity operations, however sales for most were somewhat lackluster, as has been the case of late…
MetLife Files a New Simplified Variable Annuity – With a GMAB
In recent reports we’ve opined about how slow activity along the variable annuity product pipeline has become this summer. Yet last Friday MetLife cut through the seasonal doldrums by registering an interesting new contract with...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2014
This commentary contains our regular coverage of notable variable insurance fund filings from the prior month. In June we saw fairly brisk rate of activity, including a number of new registrations…
Identifying Trends in Variable Annuity Industry Product Changes in 2014
Since the start of the year we have been steadily tracking modifications to variable annuity products and in this commentary we’ll share what we think are prevailing trends from around the industry…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2014
This report contains our coverage of notable variable insurance fund filings from the month of May, and to summarize that time period, most activity involved changes to existing offerings. We didn’t see any new registrations...
Another Structured Annuity is On The Way – This Time from ING
To date, only a few insurers have come out with structured annuities, which contain a basket of index-linked options with buffers to protect investors against a set percentage of losses. That’s why we were somewhat...
Signs from Earnings Calls Point to Lower VA Industry Deposits in 1Q14
In the first quarter of this year variable annuity sales fell, on a sequential basis, for every member of our group of publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly, which makes us pretty sure that the industry...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from April, 2014
In this commentary we’ll cover notable variable insurance fund filings from the month of April, which was a somewhat slow period in our opinion…