Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2010
During November, the rate of variable fund filings is usually rather slow, and the same pattern held true this year. We noticed no new registrations during the month. Insurers appeared to be tidying up their...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2010
In recent years we have tended to see a modest number of variable insurance fund filings during the month of October, and the same pattern held true this time around. There were a few interesting...
An Agreeable Summer – Insurers Post Respectable VA Sales in Q3
As is our custom, we delved into the variable annuity business results of 10 stock-traded insurers we track, and, overall, came away with a pretty positive impression about the third quarter. We say this even...
Concerning the RIA Market – and Noteworthy Product Filings
The number of variable annuity contracts designed for fee-based financial advisors has been growing of late, and in this commentary we’ll share some thoughts as to the why this is happening, and weigh in on...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2010
It’s time again for us to conduct our monthly review of variable insurance fund filings. We thought the industry was pretty active during September, with insurers making quite a few modifications to their investment platforms…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from August, 2010
It’s once again time for us to provide our monthly update on filings of variable insurance funds, and our first observation is that in August there were few new registrations, but we’re used to seeing...
Contract Trends – Fresh Ideas, Approaches in New Registrations
We continue to see new variable annuity contracts in the pipeline that have what we call non-traditional chassis and pricing, and we think insurance companies are developing such products to anticipate future needs – not...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July, 2010
This report contains our usual highlights of variable insurance portfolio filings from the prior month, but we’ll also spend a little time considering investment platform trends around the industry, which have a strong connection to...
Change is Constant – and Probably Unavoidable for VA Issuers
Lately we have found the kind of product adjustments and upgrades occurring around the variable annuity business to be rather interesting and revealing about the priorities of insurers, their distribution partners and clients. We imagine...