Research & Reports
Notes on Recently-Launched Annuities – and Others on the Way
Even though registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) have been stealing the spotlight of late – not to mention market share – that doesn’t mean that insurers haven’t been working on more traditional annuity concepts. In this...
A Few Thoughts on VA Spinoffs – and Notable Product News
For more than a decade, the U.S. variable annuity business has been in de-risking mode, and this process has taken many forms. Early on, much of the activity involved product redesign. The most recent manifestations...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from August, 2021
We saw a number of interesting variable fund registrations last month – including a new series of defined outcome portfolios – along with a healthy amount of changes made to insurers’ investment platforms. We’ll discuss...
The Latest – on New Variable Annuity Contract Launches
In our view, activity along the variable annuity product pipeline continues to be lively, and in this report we’ll cover new contracts that, based on our reading of regulatory filings, have launched or are close...
On Jackson’s RIA Variable Annuity – and Other Notable Product Filings
In our view, two types of annuities are most in demand at the moment, namely registered index-linked annuities and variable annuities for fee-based advisers. Regarding the latter, we believe they are being built to address...
Q2 Earnings Review – RILAs Again Fueled Industry Sales Growth
Judging by the results of publicly traded insurers we regularly track, the annuity industry experienced sales growth in the second quarter, building on momentum generated during the prior quarter…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2021
In June we were surprised to see a bumper crop of variable fund registrations, nearly all of them defined outcome portfolios, which have protective features found on registered index-linked annuities (RILAs). This yet more evidence...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2021
This report contains our regular coverage of noteworthy variable insurance fund filings from the prior month, a period where we saw an uptick in new registrations, which, not surprisingly, were of in-favor fund categories and...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July and August, 2020
This report will cover noteworthy variable insurance fund developments from the months of July and August. We usually see light filing activity during the summer, but this time around it was pretty lively, with multiple...