Research & Reports
Reflecting on the Year Almost Past: 2006 in the Variable Annuity Business
As the holiday season is now upon us, in our last commentary of the year we’ll take the opportunity to quickly consider how things went for the variable annuity business in 2006, using currently-available data,...
Impressions on the Variable Annuity Business in 2007 – Part I
Last year at this time we published a commentary with our reflections on how the variable annuity industry performed in 2006, based on what we knew at that point, and made some suggestions as to...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2007
In November, variable insurance fund filing activity with the SEC was pretty vigorous, and we identified 13 new registrations, notable among them some funds-of-funds (F-of-Fs) and several portfolios with a global or emerging markets focus....
Contract Compilation – Our Remarks on the Latest VAs Filed This Year
In the interest of remaining on top of what’s happening with variable annuity contracts, and given the fact that we haven’t touched on them for several months, this week we’ll give our observations on chassis...
What the Competition Dictates: Continual Refinements to VA Benefit Features
This year might be winding down, but in the variable annuity space we are still encountering registrations of new living benefits and enhancements to existing ones, although a good portion of them won’t actually roll...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2007
After conducting our usual compilation and review of variable fund-related filings, for October we identified 12 new registrations, most of them funds-of-funds (F-of-Fs), and in this report we’ll review them and also comment on interesting...
How We Did Last Summer – Appraising Public Insurers’ VA Results from 3Q07
After reviewing third-quarter variable annuity deposits and net flows for the group of major publicly-traded insurers we regularly track, we found most of them endured at least a slight decrease in deposits compared to the...
Insurers Strategize Carefully Regarding VA Contract and Feature Expenses
Based on our continual reading of regulatory filings, we see evidence that insurers are exercising ever more care in crafting the fees and expenses they charge on variable annuity contracts and riders, and we think...
Some Thoughts on Variable Annuity Sales Trends – As Earnings Season Begins
We honestly look forward to each quarterly earnings season for publicly-traded insurers, because the statistical reports and conference calls always contain plenty of useful information on variable product sales. In this report we’re going to...