Research & Reports

It’s become our custom to dedicate our last commentary each year to looking back at how the variable annuity business performed, to get the evaluation process started before fourth quarter data are released. Thus in...

In this commentary we will be discussing some of the newer variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) that insurers have been filing, many of these riders offering robust base growth rates, yet also incorporating...

During the third quarter we saw a familiar pattern that’s emerged lately in the variable annuity business, that of a minority of insurers – those still selling the richer guaranteed benefits – posting exceptional sales,...

One of the many ongoing tasks we have on our “to-do list” is to stay current with what’s happening in new variable annuity contracts coming to market, so in this commentary we’ll catch up with...

To continue with an opinion we expressed last week: over the remainder of the year we expect to see a mixture of aggression and retreat on the part of variable annuity insurers, as some will...

As the fourth quarter commences we get the sense that the variable annuity business is thankful for the recent appreciation in the financial markets, however there is concern over whether the recovery will persist. For...

Through the second quarter of this year, there remains a lead pack of variable annuity writers still offering relatively rich living benefits, and by our reckoning, this fact contributed to their robust sales during that...

Now that summer is winding down, that means we’ll soon be in a familiar time between the end of a quarter and when official data come out, when we’ll be conversing with contacts, swapping anecdotal...

It’s once again time for us to offer our quarterly commentary on variable annuity sales for the stock-traded insurers we regularly monitor, and to discuss relevant themes facing the industry. We’ll start off by saying...