Research & Reports
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from September, 2012
This report is our customary roundup of noteworthy variable insurance fund filings from the prior month. In September we did not notice many new registrations, rather most of the filing activity involved changes to existing...
Regarding Risk – and How VA Insurers’ Methods Are Evolving to Manage It
This year has been one of rapid change, as variable annuity insurers of all sizes have sought to reduce their product-related risks in one form or another, and we’re sure that anyone looking at all...
New Coverage: Variable Insurance Volatility-Managed Portfolios
This spreadsheet is a comprehensive list of all variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios that were in operation through the second quarter of 2012…
VA Insurers Are Fine Tuning Their Products – But Not Always De-Risking
Last week we saw an interesting mix of variable annuity product adjustments filed with the SEC. Some, as should be expected, were reductions to benefit guarantees, but a couple involved enhancing them…
Thoughts on Variable Annuity Change Trends As We Enter 4Q12
Variable annuity insurers have certainly been very active this year in de-risking their products in response to competitive and market-related conditions, however in recent weeks filing activity has slowed down a bit. It could be...
VA Insurers Attempt to Design Attractive – But Manageable – Guarantees
A dilemma for insurers working in the variable annuity space these days is how to offer guarantees without taking on undue amounts of risk. To our minds this consideration is a priority for the industry,...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from July-August, 2012
In this report we’ll get caught up with variable insurance fund developments from July and August. During those months we detected an interesting mix of new registrations, fee and expense adjustments, reorganizations and manager changes…
Newer Annuity Types That Are Emerging During this Period of De-Risking
For the most part, variable annuity insurers are moving away from selling risky benefits, but we think that the process of de-risking will take time, because industry sales are still largely driven by the richest...
Update: Comprehensive List of In-force GLWBs
This table provides capsule summaries of all variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) that, according to our records, are still available for sale; it is an update to a table we posted last September...