Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2017
This report covers notable variable fund developments from the last month, a time in which we saw no new registrations, but a good amount of filings that made changes to investment platforms…
Update: Notable VA Product Changes in 2016
This spreadsheet is the final version of our coverage of notable variable annuity product changes in 2016; during the year we noticed a wide variety of tweaks and modifications…
Thinking About the Variable Annuity Business in 2016 – and Beyond
Not long ago industry research firms released full-year 2016 variable annuity sales data, thus in this report we’ll give our thoughts on what the numbers revealed, and discuss some themes from last year might remain...
Update: Variable Insurance Volatility-Managed Portfolios
This is our final update of our spreadsheet of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios for 2016. By our count there were 212 such portfolios in operation at year end, containing $256 billion in assets…
An Update Regarding Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios in 2016
In this report we’ll conclude our coverage of variable managed-volatility portfolios in 2016, citing data compiled from trust annual reports filed with the SEC..
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from February, 2017
This report contains our customary coverage of noteworthy variable fund filings from the prior month. During February we noticed a number of new registrations, including some that will pursue alternative investment and managed-volatility strategies, which...
More Notes on Lincoln National’s New GLWB – and Other Matters
Due to this being a somewhat slow period in the variable annuity product pipeline, in this report we’ll delve a little further into a new guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit from Lincoln National scheduled to launch...
Highlights from Recent VA Filings from February and Early March
In this report we’ll get caught up with notable annuity product filings filed with the SEC from February and early March, including new contracts and benefits as well as modifications to existing ones…
Variable Annuity Sales Were Again Depressed in Q4 and Full Year 2016
After reviewing the results of selected publicly-traded insurers from their fourth quarter earnings calls and financial statements, we expect that the variable annuity industry as a whole reflected the experience of these companies, namely lower...