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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.

GLWB Update – Taking Stock of Trends in Benefit Design, Function

Our last commentary was rather product focused, but the same will hold true this week, as we continue to get caught up with our coverage of variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs). We would...

Some Variable Annuity Benefits, Contracts Scheduled to Roll Out in May

Over the past few months variable annuity insurers have been filing products that will debut during the May prospectus update season, and in this commentary we’ll touch on some we think are noteworthy…

Differing Priorities: For Industry Players Given the Current Environment

Right now we are attending the annual marketing conference of the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) in Washington, D.C., where we are comparing notes with people in the industry, to hear what themes and issues are...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from December, 2010

Two trends we saw last year in variable product investment options were the introduction of portfolios that had some sort of risk sensitive component to them, along with the trimming of platforms to pare down...

Wading Back – Into Variable Annuity Living Benefit Competition

We firmly believe that, over the near term, most leading variable annuity players will need strong guaranteed living benefits to maintain their current sales levels – if not capture more market share. We say this...

Shifting Directions – Industry Players are Adjusting to New Realities

At this early stage in the year, a growing number of variable annuity insurers are demonstrating a willingness to de-risk in one form or another. What’s not clear is whether these companies are experiencing specific...

Getting Started – What’s in the VA Product Pipeline for Early 2011

Already some interesting competitive moves are being unveiled around the variable annuity business for the first half of the New Year, both of a “de-risking” nature or otherwise. What we are not sure about is...

2010 – For the Variable Annuity Industry, a Time of Renewed Risk Taking

It’s become our custom with the last report of December to offer reflections on how the variable annuity business performed over the past year, and suggest issues to watch in the future. We admit that...

Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from November, 2010

During November, the rate of variable fund filings is usually rather slow, and the same pattern held true this year. We noticed no new registrations during the month. Insurers appeared to be tidying up their...