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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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Zurich American Offers Buyback to Owners of Vintage VA Contracts, Riders

This week we’re going to comment on an interesting new variable annuity buyout launched fairly recently by Zurich American Life, an insurer that long ago pulled out of selling new contracts. The fact the company...

Considering Themes Relevant to the VA Industry in 2Q15 – and Beyond

It seems like the year is going by very fast – the third quarter is winding down already and yet, in our view, it’s hard to forecast how the variable annuity business will finish up...

Thoughts on Variable Annuity Contract Share Classes – and Suitability

This commentary will be a short reflection on how a distribution arm of Voya Financial has curtailed the sale of certain variable annuity share classes with guaranteed benefits, at the insistence of regulators. It’s our...

Thoughts from Q2 Earnings Season – We Suspect VA Sales Improved

Overall, we’re of the opinion that second quarter earnings for stock-traded insurers we watch regularly were pretty strong, and for all of them, variable annuity sales went up sequentially, thus we suspect the industry experienced...

Reviewing an Interesting New Forethought VA ̶ and Other Recent Filings

At this point in the summer, variable annuity product pipeline activity has slowed considerably – as is typical for the time of year – however we did see a recent contract registration from Forethought Life...

Interesting Options – Found In This Month’s Variable Annuity Product Filings

In our view, this May variable annuity prospectus update season hasn’t been all that eventful – although we must admit we are still sifting through all the filings. In this commentary we’ll discuss a few...

How Do We Think Q1 Variable Annuity Sales Moved? Not By Much, Either Way

Last week we finished reviewing first quarter results for stock-traded insurers we monitor regularly, and for most of them, variable annuity sales were lethargic, thus we expect the industry experienced similar results…

Random Reflections from the LIMRA/LOMA/SOA Retirement Conference

Last week we attended the annual LIMRA/LOMA/Society of Actuaries Retirement Industry Conference held in Washington, D.C., and in this commentary, as we have done in the past, we won’t try to completely recap the event,...

VA Sales in 2014 Were Slow Again, Reflecting a Retooling Environment

Each year we devote the last commentary of December to taking a quick look back at the past year in the variable annuity business, and we’ll do so again this time, and also make some...