Research & Reports
Market Volatility Persists, Impacting Public Insurers’ VA Results in 4Q07
Usually at the end of each year variable annuity sales rebound from the slow period of the summer, however the fourth quarter of 2007 contained a mixture of good and bad for the public insurers...
New VA Contract Notes: Wrapping up 2007 and Getting Into the New Year
In this commentary we’re going to catch up on our monitoring of new variable annuity contract registrations, both from last year and for the start of 2008, and give some highlights on what’s happening in...
The 7% Solution – Leading VA Players Vying Over GLWB Base Increases
This year is shaping up as one that will be marked by heated competition among variable annuity issuers over the generosity of their Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs), and we will be watching to see...
Variable Funds-of-Funds Keep Increasing In Number, Accumulating Assets
Compared to the bull market years, the role that underlying sub-accounts play in the sale of variable insurance products has certainly been diminished, however, a storyline that holds much interest for us is how money...
Reflecting on the Year Almost Past: 2006 in the Variable Annuity Business
As the holiday season is now upon us, in our last commentary of the year we’ll take the opportunity to quickly consider how things went for the variable annuity business in 2006, using currently-available data,...
Impressions on the Variable Annuity Business in 2007 – Part I
Last year at this time we published a commentary with our reflections on how the variable annuity industry performed in 2006, based on what we knew at that point, and made some suggestions as to...
How We Did Last Summer – Appraising Public Insurers’ VA Results from 3Q07
After reviewing third-quarter variable annuity deposits and net flows for the group of major publicly-traded insurers we regularly track, we found most of them endured at least a slight decrease in deposits compared to the...
Some Thoughts on Variable Annuity Sales Trends – As Earnings Season Begins
We honestly look forward to each quarterly earnings season for publicly-traded insurers, because the statistical reports and conference calls always contain plenty of useful information on variable product sales. In this report we’re going to...
Seeing the Connection Between Complexity and Regulation in the VA Business
This week we’re going to step away momentarily from our customary labors – sorting through contract and rider filings, categorizing them and summarizing them – to consider how the unique complexities of variable annuities have...