Research & Reports

During this prospectus update season we intend to be vigilant in tracking variable annuity product developments, and in this commentary we’ll provide some more perspective on an area in which we’re seeing a good deal...

We’ve been providing frequent commentary lately about guaranteed living benefits – which we think is warranted since they are so integral to the variable annuity sales story these days – however this week we’ll focus...

The stream of variable annuity-related filings moving through the SEC has been speeding up of late, and a common theme we keep noticing is that insurers are building in new forms of flexibility to their...

This is an update of our table summarizing notable variable annuity industry product developments from the year 2009; for the first time we are providing it in Excel format, which we hope will be appreciated...

In this new table we have our summaries of all variable annuity GLWBs we have identified as still being for sale thus far in 2010; over time we will update it to capture changes that...

This is an updated version of our table covering new variable annuity Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) initially filed in 2009…

After reviewing fourth quarter variable annuity results of stock-traded companies we regularly monitor, we found a familiar mixed result – a few insurers did well while most others saw deposits decline – reflecting how the...

It’s common practice for variable annuity insurers to use the prospectus update season to bring out new products or enhance existing ones. Usually we don’t see major changes start cropping up until a month or...

Innovation permeates the very core of the variable annuity business; in fact we’ve come to expect near-constant creativity from actuaries and product development specialists. The rate of movement may have slowed compared with years past,...