Research & Reports

Now that the appeal of variable annuity guaranteed living benefits has been firmly established – and has grown steadily over the past several years, greatly helping insurers sustain growth – it seems only natural that...

Due to the variable annuity living benefit arms race we’re seeing commoditization setting in among Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs), with numerous variations emerging not just due to the heat of competition but because insurers...

We’re just entering the season where new variable annuity product filings really begin to pick up, and there’s ample evidence that the guaranteed living benefit arms race is still being waged with great gusto. To...

Usually at the end of each year variable annuity sales rebound from the slow period of the summer, however the fourth quarter of 2007 contained a mixture of good and bad for the public insurers...

Based on what we’re seeing in regulatory filings and our discussions with industry contacts, the variable annuity business is steadily getting busier, and the heightened activity will surely continue straight through the May 1 prospectus...

In this commentary we’re going to catch up on our monitoring of new variable annuity contract registrations, both from last year and for the start of 2008, and give some highlights on what’s happening in...

This year is shaping up as one that will be marked by heated competition among variable annuity issuers over the generosity of their Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs), and we will be watching to see...

We conducted our regular monitoring of variable fund-related filings to wrap up the last month of 2007 and found evidence of investment trends we’ve been seeing in the industry. New funds-of-funds (F-of-Fs) of different types...

It’s only January but we need to comment again on variable annuity living benefit proliferation because, bridging the very end of last year into this one, a number of insurers have filed new or enhanced...