8 notable trends in the VA business
Annual variables
Variable annuities are at a turning point in product development, as insurers juggle a desire to remain in the market without saddling their books with even more long-dated risk. Life insurers are suffering from lengthy periods of low interest rates, which dampen the returns they earn on bonds and raise the cost of hedging living benefits – the lifetime income riders that are so popular with clients. As a result, companies are taking steps to back away from those long-dated features and are testing out different product models. The constant parade of new and revised will not make things any easier for advisers or their clients.
Here, then, are eight of the more notable trends that will ripple the VA lake in 2013.
(Story: Darla Mercado)
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