Research & Reports
Several Insurers Filed New VA Contracts That Will Debut Later This Year
Last week a few insurers registered new variable annuity contracts that won’t launch until several months from now – and some of their key elements not yet fully fleshed out – so in this commentary...
Forethought Registers New VA Contract With Enriched GLWBs
For the most part, variable annuity insurers have been scaling back on the generosity of their guaranteed benefits, but there are a few out there who are not afraid to offer rather aggressive features, and...
Jackson National Files to Offer New Death Benefits in April
If anyone had doubts that Jackson National wants to maintain its leadership position in variable annuity sales, those would have to be dispelled by the company’s filing last week of new guaranteed minimum death benefits...
Getting Clarity on Transamerica’s Recent VA Product Moves
Last week we noted how Transamerica filed to remove optional guaranteed death and living benefits from one of its variable annuity contracts – something we found quite intriguing – and in this report we will...
The VA Industry’s Product De-Risking Theme Is Continuing Into 2015
In this commentary we will get caught up with recent variable annuity filings – a good number of them involving de-risking – that we think provide great examples of how industry trends and themes that...
VA Sales in 2014 Were Slow Again, Reflecting a Retooling Environment
Each year we devote the last commentary of December to taking a quick look back at the past year in the variable annuity business, and we’ll do so again this time, and also make some...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2014
This report will cover noteworthy variable insurance fund filings from November – which was a fairly active month – and also briefly discuss trends in variable managed-volatility funds…
Sizing Up the Playing Field – More Thoughts on 3Q14 Industry Sales
In this commentary we’ll provide more of our observations on annuity sales in the third quarter, and consider the competitive landscape as we enter the holiday season…
An Update on VA Industry Filing Activity at the Start of December
Activity along the variable annuity product pipeline has been somewhat slow of late, reflecting the fact that most insurers are retooling their offerings – and yet recently we’ve noticed a company, MetLife, file new guaranteed...