Research & Reports
An Outlook on Fixed-Index Annuities in this Low-Rate Environment
This year we intend to follow through on a longtime resolution to start covering fixed-index annuities (FIAs) more frequently in these pages, due to their importance to the overall annuity market and the fact that...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2020
This will be a longer-than-usual variable fund report as December was quite an active time, especially for insurer Jackson National, which filed numerous moves, including new fund registrations, sub-advisory changes and reorganizations which are scheduled...
An Outlook on Registered Index-Linked Annuities – as We Enter 2021
This year we intend on providing our subscribers with more in-depth coverage of registered index-linked annuities (RILAs), firstly because we expect their sales to continue outpacing all other annuity types, secondly because we think insurers...
The Year 2020 Was Fraught With Challenges for Annuity Insurers
This will be our customary year-end report, based on what we know from U.S. annuity industry data through the third quarter. It certainly goes without saying that 2020 was a trying one for us all,...
An Update on Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios Through 3Q20
This spreadsheet updates our coverage of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios in 2020. By our count, at the end of the third quarter there were 203 such portfolios in operation, containing $264 billion in assets…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2020
In November we saw several new variable fund registrations, most notable among them a series of defined outcome funds that mimic the attributes of registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) in that they will offer limited protection...
Update: Notable VA Benefit Rate Sheet Changes in 2020
This spreadsheet contains a list of variable annuity rate sheet updates that involved noteworthy changes from the prior sheet; it contains 132 entries…
Assessing Variable Annuity Benefit Rate Sheet Changes of Recent Months
It’s about time we got caught up with variable annuity benefit rate sheets because much has happened since we last visited the subject. Most changes insurers have been making of late involve de-risking – even...
Most Stock-Traded Insurers’ Annuity Sales Grew – Sequentially – in Q3
As we do each quarter, we reviewed business results of stock-traded insurers we watch regularly and discovered that for most of them, annuity sales improved slightly compared to the prior quarter, but were still lower...