Research & Reports
Notes on New Variable Annuity Contracts Filed Recently With the SEC
This report will cover a number of new variable annuity contracts registered last week, which to us provide evidence that the industry product pipeline is beginning to pick up…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2015
In December, we noticed a few new variable fund registrations – nearly all of them fixed income offerings – plus familiar themes from prior months. In particular, there were quite a few instances of money...
VA Product Update – Covering Filings From Late Last Year, Into 2016
In this report we’ll get caught up with variable annuity product filings from the past few months that we found interesting. In the batch we saw multiple instances where insurers sought to add rate sheet...
A Rough Market Start – Does it Portend Anything for Annuities?
Just as we were getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, there was a sharp decline in the stock market, which prompted us to think of what the implications could be for...
On 2015: A Time of Shifting Realities For the Variable Annuity Business
Each year we provide, with our last issue of December, a quick rundown of how the variable annuity business performed so far, from our perspective, and a few forward-looking thoughts for the New Year. While...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2015
During November we saw an interesting mix of filings related to variable insurance funds, including some new registrations. Among the many changes included modifications to the objectives of managed-volatility portfolios, and more conversions of money...
The Deferred Income Annuity – A Product With a Hopeful Future
In this report we’ll discuss deferred income annuities (DIAs), products that, in our view, were built to provide less risky forms of guaranteed income as compared to living benefits, and to answer longstanding objections to...
Some Brief Thoughts Regarding Q3 Annuity Industry Sales
Industry research firms began reporting third quarter sales not long ago, and the numbers confirmed our earlier suspicions, that variable annuity sales would fell in the quarter, while total industry output was sustained through a...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2015
During October we saw a number of new variable fund registrations, including a few that will feature volatility management. In this report we’ll discuss them, as well as other fund-related developments…
