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Research & Reports

Soleares Research, LLC is a market research and consulting firm servicing the annuity and life insurance businesses. We provide, through our website, periodic articles that cover important industry trends; we also offer clients phone or on-site consultations, executive briefings and presentations. We pride ourselves on first-class customer service and responsiveness to our clients. We aim to be an indispensable resource to the marketplace.

Various Stressors Are Impacting the VA Business as Spring is on the Way

We have a feeling this spring will be a busy one for the variable annuity business because in addition to submitting annual prospectus updates, most insurers will be looking to adjust their contract and benefit...

Evaluating the Cycle of Change and What it Means for the VA Business

These are very interesting times for the variable annuity industry, if for no other reason than the sheer amount of product and feature amendments that have been occurring since late last year. We think that...

Reflecting on 2008: a Turning Point Year for Variable Annuity Players

This is our customary early retrospective of the past year for the variable annuity business, in which we’ll offer a narrative of how things unfolded chronologically in 2008, the market conditions that arose and their...

Musing on the State of Variable Annuities During the Current Market Turmoil

Recently we’ve been contemplating the “value proposition” of the variable annuity, how the product might be positioned and sold given the existing market climate. Earnings season is now underway and we think results from last...

Diverse Thoughts on Directions in the VA Industry, Topics to Keep Tabs On

Second-quarter earnings season for insurers is just getting underway and we’re quite curious to see how variable annuity sales and flows held up for the leading companies, given the many stressors – from without and...

An Up-and-Coming Product Line – VAs for Defined Contribution Plans, Rollovers

As more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, financial services firms will be competing over who will manage the trillions of dollars these folks have socked away in their defined contribution (DC) plans. We anticipate a...

Summertime in the Variable Annuity Business – Not as Slow as You Think

Recently, in compiling information and data for our reports we’ve been sorting through many regulatory filings, and will continue to do so of course, but this week we’re going to pause a bit from those...

Insurers Strategize Carefully Regarding VA Contract and Feature Expenses

Based on our continual reading of regulatory filings, we see evidence that insurers are exercising ever more care in crafting the fees and expenses they charge on variable annuity contracts and riders, and we think...

Uncovering Industry Trends Through Study of Available Data on Living Benefits

We’re always on the lookout for real concrete data on variable annuity living benefits and to that end we’ve been combing through insurers’ quarterly financial supplements and statutory statements to extract whatever information is publicly...