
Research & Reports
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...
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...