
Research & Reports
Hot-Button Issues for VA Insurers as Q2 Results Start to Come In
Second quarter earnings season for stock-traded insurers has gotten underway and we are very much looking forward to hearing how variable annuity players performed because in our opinion, the quarter was a stressful one…
VA Insurers’ Summer Projects – From De-risking to New Product Concepts
The summer is usually a slow period for the variable annuity business, with sales dropping off, at least by a small margin. This year, however, it seems that activity has been picking up, most of...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from April-May, 2012
Recently there’s been quite a bit of interesting product tweaking and modification activity occurring around the variable annuity space, enough for us to get a little behind on our monthly coverage of what’s happening in...
Early Signs Point to Headwinds for the Variable Annuity Marketplace in 2012
Based on recently released industry sales figures, as well as the kinds of signals we’ve been getting from leading insurers, we are of the opinion there will be strong downward pressure on variable annuity sales...
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...