Research & Reports
GLWB Update – Newest Riders Contain Risk-Related Components
There’s little doubt variable annuity insurers are carefully monitoring their benefit risk levels, leading them to come out with new Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWBs) with elements that will make adjustments to ward off the...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from April, 2010
During the month of April most variable insurance fund filings with the SEC were routine prospectus updates, and we didn’t identify a great many substantive changes and adjustments, but in this report we’ll share with...
Odds and Ends – Catching Up on Product Filings, Tweaks Around the Business
The prospectus update season might have been quieter than usual, but in recent weeks we’ve seen an interesting assortment of variable annuity product and feature filings, most of which will take effect during July and...
Variable Annuity Sales from 1Q10 – Could The Industry Be Back on Track?
The fortunes of the variable annuity business are still largely dictated by the performance of companies with the most attractive guaranteed living benefits, and, based on some improvement we saw from a few insurers we...
GMABs and More – Currents of Activity in VA Prospectus Updates
Last week we saw a surge in SEC filings related to variable annuities – many of them May 1 prospectus updates – and in our next few reports we’ll comment on interesting things we found...
Spring Tweaking – VA Product Changes Emphasizing Income, Protection
So far this year we’re seen a number of variable annuity insurers start building in higher guaranteed annual withdrawal amounts (GAWAs) on their lifetime withdrawal riders. Some of these new schemes have been rather creative,...
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from March, 2010
Over the recent past we’ve described the variable annuity business as being in a period where fewer new product ideas are being launched than we’re used to for this time of year. Thus we weren’t...
The Adjustment Game – There’s No Set Formula to Tweaking VA Products
We are accustomed to seeing numerous variable annuity ideas get introduced in early spring, however lately things have become slower than usual. We attribute this to insurers being a bit tentative about taking any serious...