Research & Reports

For more than a decade, the U.S. variable annuity business has been in de-risking mode, and this process has taken many forms. Early on, much of the activity involved product redesign. The most recent manifestations...

This spreadsheet updates our coverage of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios for the second quarter of 2021. By our count, as of June 30 we counted 200 such portfolios in operation, containing over $288 billion in...

We saw a number of interesting variable fund registrations last month – including a new series of defined outcome portfolios – along with a healthy amount of changes made to insurers’ investment platforms. We’ll discuss...

After a huge pickup in variable fund registrations during the prior month, in July, filing activity slowed to more normal seasonal levels. The few new offerings were in asset classes and investment styles that are...

This spreadsheet commences our coverage of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios for 2021. By our count, at the end of the fourth quarter there were 203 such portfolios in operation, containing over $284 billion in assets…

This report contains our regular coverage of noteworthy variable insurance fund filings from the prior month, a period where we saw an uptick in new registrations, which, not surprisingly, were of in-favor fund categories and...

Variable insurance fund filing activity last month was moderate, in our view, but typical of the time of year, because new funds tend to be registered by February at the latest, in order to be...

For most of the public insurers we regularly track, annuity gross sales improved in the first quarter, building on momentum the industry generated over the latter part of 2020. Net flows for several carriers were...

At present, variable annuity insurers who want to be at the top of the sales leaderboard must pull off a bit of a balancing act in our view: they must sell guaranteed living benefits (GLBs)...