Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2014
This report will cover noteworthy variable insurance fund filings from November – which was a fairly active month – and also briefly discuss trends in variable managed-volatility funds…
Sizing Up the Playing Field – More Thoughts on 3Q14 Industry Sales
In this commentary we’ll provide more of our observations on annuity sales in the third quarter, and consider the competitive landscape as we enter the holiday season…
An Update on VA Industry Filing Activity at the Start of December
Activity along the variable annuity product pipeline has been somewhat slow of late, reflecting the fact that most insurers are retooling their offerings – and yet recently we’ve noticed a company, MetLife, file new guaranteed...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2014
As usual there weren’t a large number of variable insurance fund filings during this October, as most new registrations are submitted to the SEC earlier in the year. Still, there were a few interesting developments...
AEGON and Assumptions – Further Thoughts on Q3 Numbers
In this commentary we’ll offer up some comments on third-quarter results of Dutch insurer AEGON, because it has a substantial variable annuity business in the U.S. and its experience in the quarter mirrored that of...
The Q3 Market Uptick Boosted VA Assets – as For Sales? We’re Not Sure
Third quarter earnings season for the publicly-traded insurers we watch regularly concluded last week, and for most of those companies, variable annuity business operations retained profitability, largely because the stock market’s rise caused assets under...
Various Benefit Updates, Changes From Around the VA Business
In recent weeks the variable annuity product pipeline hasn’t exactly been buzzing with activity, but we have seen a few tweaks and rider updates – most, but not all, involving de-risking – and we’ll discuss...
Thoughts on Q3 VA Industry Sales – and a Few Product Developments
Earnings season for publicly-traded insurers is now underway but won’t finish until midway through next month, so in this commentary we’ll offer up some of our suspicions on how variable annuity sales moved in the...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2014
This report contains our regular coverage of variable insurance fund filings from the prior month. During September there were not so many new registrations, but we did see a large amount of sub-advisory changes and...