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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.

Departures, De-Risking Dampened Variable Annuity Sales in 1Q12

As we usually do on each quarter, we compiled variable annuity sales results for 10 stock-traded insurers we watch on a regular basis, because performance of this group has proven to be a good early...

On Finding Capacity – During a Stressful Time for the Annuity Business

In this report we’ll share what we thought were key takeaways from the Insured Retirement Institute’s 2012 Marketing Summit held last week in New York City, and try to put those thoughts in perspective with...

“Bowing Out” – Hartford’s Departure from the VA Space and What it May Portend

Hartford’s decision to discontinue sales of individual annuities has triggered a number of related events in recent days, and we get the feeling that more interesting developments are yet to come. Moreover we believe that...

The Price of De-Risking: Sales for Most VA Issuers Dropped in 4Q11

After reviewing variable annuity sales of selected publicly-traded insurers from the fourth quarter of 2011, we’re of the opinion that, for that time period, industry-wide deposits declined a bit sequentially. However for the full year,...

A Quick Look Back – on 2011 and its Significance for the VA Industry

As we have done in the past, we reserved our last weekly commentary of this year for a reflection on how the variable annuity business performed in 2011. It is our way of getting a...

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...

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...

“Trading Places” – De-Risking Caused Shifts in the VA Market During 2Q11

The second quarter is traditionally one of the best for variable annuity sales, and we are hearing estimates from our contacts that the industry performed well this time around. However we’re also getting the distinct...