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Research & Reports

Soleares Research, LLC is a market research and consulting firm servicing the annuity and life insurance businesses. We provide, through our website, periodic articles that cover important industry trends; we also offer clients phone or on-site consultations, executive briefings and presentations. We pride ourselves on first-class customer service and responsiveness to our clients. We aim to be an indispensable resource to the marketplace.

Summer – A Good Time to Evaluate Directions in the Variable Business

In recent weeks we’ve seen a reduction in variable annuity product flings, which is typical for this time of year. This slower pace gives us the opportunity this week to reflect on currents of activity...

Principal Financial Files a New VA Contract – With an Optional DIA Module

Late last week Principal Financial registered a new variable annuity containing a deferred income annuity (DIA) sleeve, and because of that development we thought we’d take the opportunity to consider the progress of such features...

An IOVA Update – Looking at Current Products, Ones Coming to Market

Lately we’ve fielded an increased number of questions about investment-only variable annuities (IOVAs) so in this commentary we will weigh in further about them. We expect more IOVAs to be filed over the near term...

Reviewing 2013 Industry Sales and Considering What the Future May Hold

Not long ago leading research firms LIMRA and Morningstar released final annuity industry sales data for 2013 – after quite a long wait – and in this commentary we’ll give a few thoughts on the...

Insurers Are Developing More Variations on the Investment-Only VA

As the year began, we were confident more investment-only variable annuities were on the drawing board and we were curious as to how insurers might tinker with the concept. It just so happens that some...

In 2013, VA Sales Eased While Other Annuity Products Gathered Steam

Throughout most of 2013, variable annuity sales took a downward trajectory, due mostly to the de-risking undertaken by insurers, mirroring moves they had executed the year before. While net flows into VAs slowed, fixed and...

Concerning Directions in the Annuity Business in Late 2013

It's our opinion that the annuity business in the U.S. is showing signs of becoming more balanced in terms of its product offerings and sales practices. Some of this process of change is happening partly...

Concerning VA Industry Sales and Product Moves for the Rest of 2013

In this commentary we'll share our views on competitive conditions in the variable annuity space, and discuss emerging products that may influence sales over the remainder of this year, and beyond…  

At Summer’s End – VA Insurers Were Making Further Product Adjustments

Over the last few weeks of this summer we noticed an interesting mixture of variable annuity product movements, a good number scheduled to take effect during the fall, which we’ll cover in this commentary.  We...