Research & Reports
At Summer’s End – VA Insurers Were Making Further Product Adjustments
Over the last few weeks of this summer we noticed an interesting mixture of variable annuity product movements, a good number scheduled to take effect during the fall, which we’ll cover in this commentary. We...
Some Thoughts About the Future of VAs – and Annuities in General
Now that summer is winding down, we’ll take the opportunity to offer up a short reflection on where the variable annuity business stands right now and where it may be headed. We believe that the...
Earnings Review: VA Industry Sales Probably Declined in 2Q13
After reviewing second quarter results of stock-traded insurers we monitor regularly, it’s our suspicion that variable annuity industry sales dropped during that time period, which would not be surprising given all the product de-risking that...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July, 2013
In July there was a pickup in filing activity related to variable insurance portfolios, with a number of interesting registrations, including two brand-new fund trusts. A good number of the new registrations are scheduled to...
Summer Moves on the VA Scene – a Mix of Innovation and De-Risking
This summer has been slow in terms of variable annuity product filings – as usually is the case for the time of year – however we have seen enough interesting things come through to give...
Update: In-force Variable Annuity Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefits (GMIBs)
This grid updates our coverage of all variable annuity Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefits (GMIBs) that, according to our records, are still for sale in the industry…
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from June, 2013
Usually in June we see a slowdown in variable insurance fund filings, but this year we thought there was a good bit of activity, which we’ll discuss in this commentary…
Update: Variable Insurance Volatility-Managed Portfolios
This spreadsheet updates our coverage of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios, including assets through the first quarter of 2013…
Update on Hartford’s Initiative: Some of Our Suspicions Have Been Confirmed
In our last few commentaries we’ve shared our suspicion that, based on language in some recent SEC filings, four state insurance departments might not allow some or all of Hartford’s planned sub-account restrictions on certain...