Research & Reports
An Update on Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios Through 2Q20
This is our second quarter snapshot of developments in variable managed-volatility portfolios, in which we will cite data we compiled from trust semi-annual reports. As we usually do this time each year, we will have...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July and August, 2020
This report will cover noteworthy variable insurance fund developments from the months of July and August. We usually see light filing activity during the summer, but this time around it was pretty lively, with multiple...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2020
In June we noticed no new variable insurance fund registrations come through but did see a great deal of activity involving changes to investment platforms, such as sub-advisory replacements and adjustments to fund fees and...
An Update on Variable Managed-Volatility Portfolios Through 1Q20
We admit we are a little late in providing our coverage of variable managed-volatility portfolios for the first quarter – and we are sorry for the delay. This commentary will contain highlights from the data...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from May, 2020
In our view, the rate of variable insurance fund filing activity was slow in May but that was to be expected since new portfolios set to debut this year would have been registered well in...
Stock-Traded Insurers’ VA Sales Held Up in Q1, Despite Market Drop
First quarter variable annuity sales for most stock-traded insurers we track regularly improved compared to the prior year, once again due to lower interest rates making the product look better than fixed and indexed annuities....
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from April, 2020
In our view some interesting variable insurance fund filings came through during April, including a few new registrations, sub-advisory and fee changes, and prospectus supplements addressing market risk issues in light of the COVID-19 crisis…
Regarding Equitable – its VA Business and Near-Term Prospects
As first-quarter earnings season will be in full swing next month we’ll offer up a few thoughts on Equitable, the insurer who spun off from parent AXA via initial public offering in May of 2018....
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2020
In March there’s usually less variable insurance fund filing activity compared to the prior month, which was again the case this year. However, we did see several new registrations, and there was no shortage of...