Research & Reports
New Coverage: New Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits Filed in 2014
This table commences our coverage of new variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) filed with the SEC so far this year…
New Coverage: Summaries of New VA Contracts Filed with the SEC in 2014
This table commences our coverage of new variable annuity contracts filed with the SEC so far in 2014…
Concerning VA Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits in the Current Environment
In this commentary we’ll discuss recent trends in variable annuity guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWBs), which are still a main driver of industry sales even though most major players have cut back on the generosity...
Reviewing 2013 Industry Sales and Considering What the Future May Hold
Not long ago leading research firms LIMRA and Morningstar released final annuity industry sales data for 2013 – after quite a long wait – and in this commentary we’ll give a few thoughts on the...
Update: Variable Insurance Volatility-Managed Portfolios
This spreadsheet updates our coverage of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios, with data through the fourth quarter of 2013. We also made some slight improvements in the coverage. By our count there were 167 such portfolios...
Assorted Happenings – Regarding Variable Products, Benefits, Funds
In this commentary we’ll cover some interesting variable product filings from recent weeks that we think are indicative of where insurers are headed with their designs. We’ll also share some brief thoughts about trends in...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from February, 2014
February is typically a month when a large number of new variable fund registrations come through, in preparation for additions to contracts during the May prospectus update season, and such was again the case this...
Talking Product – Changes, New Entries on the Variable Annuity Scene
We’ve seen an interesting mixture of product initiatives on the part of variable annuity insurers in recent weeks, which we will share with you in this commentary. Most of these moves had a de-risking quality...
It Looks Like for Most Insurers, VA Sales Were Down Again in 4Q13
We reviewed fourth quarter earnings results for selected publicly-traded insurers we track regularly and came to the conclusion that variable annuity industry deposits dropped for the quarter and the year as a whole. We think...