subscriber-login-icon
Subscriber Login
Sign Up

Research & Reports

Soleares Research, LLC is a market research and consulting firm servicing the annuity and life insurance businesses. We provide, through our website, periodic articles that cover important industry trends; we also offer clients phone or on-site consultations, executive briefings and presentations. We pride ourselves on first-class customer service and responsiveness to our clients. We aim to be an indispensable resource to the marketplace.
Sort By Type
Reports
All Reports Research
Sort By Topic
Living benefits
All 1035 exchanges Acquisition Asset allocation Benefit buyback programs Benefit exchange programs Benefit Rate Sheets Benefit risk update Commissions Compliance Contingent annuities Contract exchange programs Death benefits Deferred income annuities Defined Outcome Portfolios Distribution DOL fiduciary rule Dual Direction ESG Investing Fee-based annuities Fixed annuities Fixed-indexed annuities Hedging Immediate annuities IOVAs IRAs Living benefits Managed-volatility portfolios Marketing Merger Monthly fund report Net flows Pensions Principal protection Purchase provisions Qualified plans Quarterly earnings report Quarterly reports Registered Index-Linked Annuities Reinsurance Reserving Sales Suitability Taxes Variable annuities Variable funds Variable life Year in review report

The Price of De-Risking: Sales for Most VA Issuers Dropped in 4Q11

After reviewing variable annuity sales of selected publicly-traded insurers from the fourth quarter of 2011, we’re of the opinion that, for that time period, industry-wide deposits declined a bit sequentially. However for the full year,...

Results Are Coming In – and VA Sales Appear to Have Cooled Off

As we write this, stock-traded insurers are in the middle of earnings season, and 4Q11 variable annuity sales data are being released. So far, most companies we monitor regularly have been reporting sequential declines in...

Coming Into Focus – Pending VA Product Changes Are Being Finalized

Last year some variable annuity insurers filed what appeared to be de-risking tweaks to their products, but with key details left undisclosed, and some of these planned changes have stayed in the pipeline for quite...

“The Daily Show” – Hartford Enhances Ratchets on New Benefits

The recent filing by Hartford Life of two new variable annuity benefits that feature highest daily account value growth has the industry buzzing, and we think for good reason. Observers of the market will be...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2011

With the publication of this report we’ll conclude our regular monthly coverage of variable insurance fund filings from 2011. We thought December was quite an active month: there was a nice batch of new registrations,...

VA Insurers Tread Carefully in Adjusting Products, Launching New Ideas

As the New Year has gotten underway, we can’t say we’ve seen any real earth-shattering variable annuity products as of yet. Indeed, some tweaks and revisions filed with the SEC last year have not rolled...

“Stretching Exercises” – That Might Pull VA Products in New Directions

It’s our sense that, unless there is a dramatic (and sustained) rebound in the financial markets near term, most variable annuity insurers will be in de-risking mode. For that reason we expect more of the...

A Busy Beginning – for Product Moves Around the VA Business

Through the latter months of last year, we saw a number of variable annuity product changes in the pipeline whose details were not fully fleshed out. Because of this we got the feeling that most...

A Season of Change – In Which VA Insurers Are Moving Tentatively

Many variable annuity issuers have been filing changes to their products – mostly of the de-risking variety – but they have not taken what we would call drastic measures. We think this is because most...