Research & Reports
New Structured Annuities on the Way – Plus Notes from Other Filings
In this commentary we’ll get caught up with recent developments in structured annuities – there was a new registration and the launch of one that had been in the pipeline – and we’ll also cover...
Earnings Review: Several Insurers Saw Stronger VA Sales in 2Q19
Late yesterday we concluded our review of results of selected stock-traded insurers and our main takeaway is that some of them experienced growth in their variable annuity businesses in the second quarter, although we are...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July, 2019
In our view, July was a very busy month in terms of variable insurance fund filing activity, a time in which we saw a number of interesting developments that we’ll share in this commentary...
John Hancock Files New Variable Annuity Benefit Buyback Program
This year we’ve seen a number of variable annuity guaranteed benefit buyback offers, and in this report we’ll cover one filed not long ago by John Hancock. It is tentatively scheduled to commence in the...
More Thoughts on VA Living Benefits – and Clarifying an RMD Provision
In this report we’ll discuss industry trends in election rates of guaranteed living benefits (GLBs), citing data from LIMRA, and make a correction to our coverage last week of a new lifetime withdrawal benefit from...
An Update on VA Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits and Rate Sheets
In this commentary we’ll review a new variable annuity guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) filed recently by Nationwide, and touch on some recent trends in rider rate sheets, which seem to point to a de-risking...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2019
This will be a fairly long commentary because variable insurance fund filing activity picked up nicely last month – among notable developments was the filing of a newly-formed trust containing a large number of fund...
Yet More Thoughts on New VAs and Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits
This week we’ll once again weigh in on patterns we’re seeing in variable annuity product development, which will serve as an accompaniment to our updates of Featured Research tables covering new contracts and guaranteed lifetime...
Notes From the VA Contract Pipeline – And Some New Rider Filings
In this report we’ll get caught up with recent developments along the variable annuity product pipeline and touch on pre-effective amendments to new contracts that have launched or will soon, as well as some new...