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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.

Concerning the RIA Market – and Noteworthy Product Filings

The number of variable annuity contracts designed for fee-based financial advisors has been growing of late, and in this commentary we’ll share some thoughts as to the why this is happening, and weigh in on...

GLWB Movements – Answering the Competition, Preparing for Next Year

It’s our feeling that newer variable annuity lifetime withdrawal benefits getting filed of late – plus various modifications to existing ones – are being introduced this quarter to “prime the pump” for next year. Barring...

Q4 Launches – Products Insurers Hope Will Attract Sales into the New Year

It’s our feeling that these days, most variable annuity insurers are in a “reactive mode” in that few are making truly bold moves with their products; rather they are content to make modifications and enhancements...

VA Contract Update – Designs Moving in Specialized Directions

Judging by new variable annuities we’ve seen registered with the SEC this year, we get the impression that a good number of them were built to meet very specific needs and issues of distributors. It...

Competitive Notes – “Must Have” Features for VA Products, Riders

Over the recent past, product filing around the variable annuity industry has been somewhat slower than usual, which to us suggests that any moves companies are making are meaningful from a competitive standpoint. In this...

GLWB Update – Newest Riders Contain Risk-Related Components

There’s little doubt variable annuity insurers are carefully monitoring their benefit risk levels, leading them to come out with new Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) with elements that will make adjustments to ward off the...

Spring Tweaking – VA Product Changes Emphasizing Income, Protection

So far this year we’re seen a number of variable annuity insurers start building in higher guaranteed annual withdrawal amounts (GAWAs) on their lifetime withdrawal riders. Some of these new schemes have been rather creative,...

Some of the Whys and Wherefores – Influencing VA Product Movements

The rate of filing in the variable annuity business has settled down a bit in recent weeks, although we figure that there are plenty of new concepts in the pipeline. Since things are a little...

VA Contract Considerations – And Assorted Notes on Other Matters

We’ve been providing frequent commentary lately about guaranteed living benefits – which we think is warranted since they are so integral to the variable annuity sales story these days – however this week we’ll focus...