Research & Reports
An Update on Current Trends in Structured Annuity Products
This will be a brief commentary touching on some of the main attributes of structured annuities, a product type that has garnered significant sales traction in recent years and has been a source of innovative...
Looking Ahead – to Insurers’ Second Quarter VA Business Results
Second-quarter earnings season for stock-traded insurers is now underway and we are looking forward to hearing how variable annuity sales fared for companies we watch regularly. We suspect that more than a few carriers experienced...
Thinking about 1Q18 in the VA Business and Recent Product Developments
Variable annuity industry sales were better than expected in the first quarter of this year and we suspect that if conditions continue to improve over the rest of 2018, insurers will feel more comfortable to...
Some Stock-Traded Insurers Saw Year-over Year VA Sales Improvement in Q1
First-quarter variable annuity deposits for most of the stock-traded insurers we monitor regularly were better compared to the prior-year quarter and we expect the industry may have had a similar experience…
More on New VA Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits – and Other Product Notes
In this report we’ll comment on variable annuity benefit launches that have occurred of late plus touch on adjustments and tweaks insurers have been making during the May prospectus update season…
A Brief Reflection on Current Conditions in the Variable Annuity Market
Given that not much variable annuity product filing activity has occurred since our last update, this week we will provide a simple reflection on current conditions in the industry…
Looking at Public Insurers’ Variable Annuity Sales Results in 4Q17
As we typically do each earnings season, we reviewed variable annuity business results for a small number of selected stock-traded insurers and for most of them, sales improved in Q4, however we can’t say the...
Some Random Thoughts Regarding Trends in VA Contract Design
With this report we’ll conclude our coverage of variable annuity contracts registered last year and provide some thoughts on current directions in product design…
Notes on Variable Annuity Filings That Came Through Late in 2017
In this first commentary of the New Year we’ll discuss some variable annuity product filings submitted to the SEC over the last days of 2017, which, in our view, reflected the kind of contracts and...