Research & Reports
A Season of Change: VA Sales Fall as Insurers Cut Back on Their Products
The year 2012 was a time when insurers made reductions to their variable annuity products: these moves included the trimming of guarantees, fee increases, closures of contracts and riders, installation of tighter investment restrictions, cuts...
MetLife’s New Index Annuity – An Example of Reverse Engineering
Last week we shared a rumor that a few insurers were planning to come out with renditions of AXA Equitable’s Structured Capital Strategies, a hybrid index/variable annuity, and said we had not seen a filing...
A Holiday Respite? VA Product Activity Seems to be Simmering Down
Over the past few weeks the pace of product filing in the variable annuity business has slowed, as has the amount of chatter coming through the rumor mill, and we attribute these conditions to the...
Why Did VA Industry Sales Decline in Q3? There Were Multiple Reasons
According to leading industry research firms, variable annuity sales dropped in the third quarter, and we weren’t too surprised by that, given the kind of moves insurers have been making of late. Furthermore we expect...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from October, 2012
This October we thought that the rate of variable fund filing activity with the SEC was about what we usually see this time of year. There were relatively few new portfolio registrations. A continuing trend...
VA Insurers Look to Ease Back Carefully on Their Benefit Guarantees
Most leading variable annuity insurers are seeking to lower their sales of guaranteed benefits, but want to do so gradually, even if that means making multiple de-risking moves in fairly quick succession. The sheer number...
Industry VA Sales Look Steady for Q3 – But Earnings Results Were Mixed
After reviewing the variable annuity business results of the group of stock-traded insurers we track regularly, we’re figuring that third quarter industry sales were flat to slightly up sequentially, and probably got a little lift...
Hartford Introduces Rider Buyback Program to Accelerate VA Runoff
As the year is winding down we have been thinking that more insurers would consider coming out with guaranteed benefit buyback programs to trim their risk profiles. Late last week we got evidence that such...
VA Insurers Are Developing New Limits on Contracts, Riders, Underlying Funds
This year most variable annuity insurers have been cutting back on the generosity of their guarantees, however we think any companies seeking to remain competitive are sort of walking a fine line – they want...