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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.
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“Trick or Treat” – a Bag Full of De-Risking, Fire Sales, and a Market Bounce

If we were to liken the variable annuity industry to a ship on the high seas, we’d have to say it has been tossed around by contrary winds of late. Choppy equity markets and low...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2011

Last month we saw a nice batch of new variable insurance funds registered with the SEC, quite a few of them containing risk-levered components that we think were designed to be used in connection with...

Changing Minds – VA Insurers Cancel, Adjust, Postpone Products

By the looks of things, we are entering a period of de-risking around the variable annuity space, brought on by a variety of pressures, among them market volatility, low interest rates, and abrupt spikes in...

More Thoughts on Prospects for the Industry, Given the Current Environment

We fully expect more product de-risking, and other changes and adjustments, to occur on the variable annuity scene over the last quarter of the year. However we also think the value proposition of the industry...

Evaluating Q3 – and How the Variable Annuity Industry Performed

Now that the third quarter has concluded, we’ve started estimating how the variable annuity industry might have fared over that time period. From what we’re hearing, it looks like troubling conditions in the financial markets...

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…

GLWB Variations – Latest Designs, Tweaks, Reflect Competitive Realities

Lately there’s been a mixture of activity involving variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs). A few insurers have been trimming back on the generosity of their riders, but the industry is not in full...

In Transition – VA Industry Leaders Downshift, Prepare for Fire Sales

Based on the kind of shifts in variable annuity sales that took place during the second quarter, it’s hard for us to guess at how the industry might perform going forward. One thing we can...