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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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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...

“Trading Places” – De-Risking Caused Shifts in the VA Market During 2Q11

The second quarter is traditionally one of the best for variable annuity sales, and we are hearing estimates from our contacts that the industry performed well this time around. However we’re also getting the distinct...

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...

Summer Sizzle – VA Product and Benefit Changes Keep Coming

Lately we’ve seen a number of new or revised variable annuity contracts and benefits filed with the SEC, and we find that interesting, since during the summer such activity tends to slow down. We suspect...

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...

Hartford Launches New VA Products – at an Interesting Time for the Industry

Today Hartford announced the launch of new variable annuity contracts and benefits as part of an initiative to re-energize its sales in the U.S. In this commentary we’ll give our thoughts on this move, given...