
Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from August, 2011
As is our habit, we sifted through SEC filings related to variable insurance funds, and in August found numerous changes and adjustments to investment platforms, in particular there were plenty of mergers and liquidations, either...
The Latest VA Contract Designs – With Pricing, Options as Priorities
This week, we thought it would be a good time to check in on new variable annuity contract filings with the SEC, since we’ve seen a good number come through recently…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July, 2011
We were somewhat surprised to uncover a fairly large batch of new variable insurance portfolios registered during July – because it’s not something we normally see during the summer. In this commentary we’ll touch on...
Shifting and Moving – Some Thoughts on Competition in the VA Space
It’s our contention that we are in a period of transition within the variable annuity industry, because some leading insurers have hinted their sales have exceeded comfort levels, and these companies will thus be de-risking....
Benefits and Sales – are Intimately Linked in This Variable Annuity Market
It probably no longer bears repeating, but an insurer’s variable annuity deposits nowadays are directly connected to the relative strength of its guaranteed benefits. We are in a period where this rule of thumb is...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2011
In this, our regular commentary about variable insurance funds from the prior month, we’ll start off by saying this June we saw a familiar pattern for the time of year, namely that there were not...
Emerging Details – Regarding MetLife’s New VA Guaranteed Benefits
Since we published our last report, we discovered that MetLife registered its new variable annuity guaranteed benefits with the Florida insurance department, and that filing contained more information – albeit some of it bracketed –...
“Cliffhanger” Filings – Containing New Guaranteed Benefits from MetLife
Late last week MetLife submitted initial registrations of several new variable annuity guaranteed death and income benefits to the SEC, and we thought this was noteworthy for a number of reasons. In this report we’ll...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2011
We thought the month of May was rather active in terms of SEC filings related to variable insurance underlying funds. There was an interesting mix of movement: sub-account platforms were streamlined, new management fee arrangements...