Research & Reports
Winding Down – There May Be More Surprises Before the Year Ends
As we write this, product filing activity around the variable annuity business has slowed down a bit, but there remain numerous modifications in the pipeline, quite a few of them not scheduled to come out...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2011
The month of October was an active one in terms of variable insurance fund filings with the SEC, and we strongly suspect that a number of the changes were connected with product initiatives insurers have...
Questions Linger – as to Where the VA Industry, Certain Players are Headed
We think these are rather uncertain times for the variable annuity space: companies are cutting back in one form or another – actually many pending product changes have yet to be fully revealed – and,...
“Headwinds” – Market Doldrums Caused Problems for VA Issuers in 3Q11
Earnings season for stock-traded insurers we monitor regularly has concluded, and, for the most part, variable annuity sales for those companies fell, due to a combination of factors that have become familiar to anyone following...
“Trick or Treat” – a Bag Full of De-Risking, Fire Sales, and a Market Bounce
If we were to liken the variable annuity industry to a ship on the high seas, we’d have to say it has been tossed around by contrary winds of late. Choppy equity markets and low...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2011
Last month we saw a nice batch of new variable insurance funds registered with the SEC, quite a few of them containing risk-levered components that we think were designed to be used in connection with...
Changing Minds – VA Insurers Cancel, Adjust, Postpone Products
By the looks of things, we are entering a period of de-risking around the variable annuity space, brought on by a variety of pressures, among them market volatility, low interest rates, and abrupt spikes in...
More Thoughts on Prospects for the Industry, Given the Current Environment
We fully expect more product de-risking, and other changes and adjustments, to occur on the variable annuity scene over the last quarter of the year. However we also think the value proposition of the industry...
Evaluating Q3 – and How the Variable Annuity Industry Performed
Now that the third quarter has concluded, we’ve started estimating how the variable annuity industry might have fared over that time period. From what we’re hearing, it looks like troubling conditions in the financial markets...