Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Standalone Living Benefit?
A Standalone Living Benefit (SALB) is a guarantee offered by insurance companies for a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) on assets held outside of an annuity. These assets may be a unified managed account investing in underlying ETFs or mutual funds or they may be individual mutual funds.
The guarantees, although they are not part of variable annuities, are registered with the SEC. However, to file these, companies do not use the registration form used for variable annuities because SALBs are a type of registered fixed annuity, not a variable annuity. Also, these forms are not filed within the CIKs used for variable annuities.
How can I search for new contracts?
Using the Contract Alert Search, go into Search by Change Type and select New Contracts. This search will bring up initial registrations, pre-effective amendments, notices of effectiveness, and some post-effective amendments. For initial VA registrations only, narrow the search to only the N-4 form type. For initial SALB registrations only, narrow the search to the S-1, S-3 and S-3ASR form types.
How can I search for new features in contracts?
Using the Contract Alert Search, go into Search by Change Type and select the desired New Feature type. Features are considered new from the initial filing through the first effective supplement. A feature that has appeared on other contracts is new if it is new on a given contract.
How can I search for SALBs only/exclude SALBs from searches?
The Contract Alert Search sorts through the contract alerts created by our research team on key SEC form types [link to list]. Each alert includes a link to the researched document, summary of the given contract, a link to the full filing history for that contract, and a summary of the change type.
The Contract Search accesses the full library of filings and allows users to see the history of documents filed within a given CIK.
What is the difference between Contract Alert Search and Contract Search?
Using the Contract Alert Search, go into Search by Change Type and select the desired New Feature type. Features are considered new from the initial filing through the first effective supplement. A feature that has appeared on other contracts is new if it is new on a given contract.
The search doesn't seem to be finding the right documents/returns no records. What is wrong?
If you have conducted a previous search and narrowed the criteria, make sure that all of the search parameters are cleared. Either click the "Clear All" button or go into the search parameters and clear the search.
If you are searching by accession number, make sure the accession number has no zeros in the beginning and no dashes in the middle.
Are variable life and variable universal life contracts included?
No. Currently, we research only variable annuity and standalone living benefit contracts. However, we do track VL and VUL fund assets through Simfund VA.
How can I save my searches?
After conducting a search, there is an option to save the search. You can input a description to remind you of the criteria of the search and may reload the search after it is saved. Later, you can edit the search, although you cannot change the search criteria.
How can I edit saved searches?
Although you cannot edit a saved search, you can reload a search, then click on Search Contract Alerts, which will bring up the original search criteria. At this point, you can change the search criteria and resave the search under the same name or a new name.
How do I monitor & track changes to a given contract?
Search for a specific contract with the specific date "latest," "last 7 days," or "last 30 days," depending on how frequently you would like to receive emails. Save the search and select emails on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can go back and edit the search to change the frequency of emails, although the date range remains the same unless you resave the search.
How do I find out when a contract has been approved?
Notices of effectiveness are typically the best way to track whether a contract is live. This document type is available for search for either variable annuities or standalone living benefits.
How do I change my password?
Can additional people from my company sign up for access?
Depending on your licensing agreement and the number of current users, additional people may register for full access to the site. Annuity Insight is a useful resource for staff in many areas, including product development, competitive research, compliance, and marketing. We encourage anybody interested in accessing the site to click on the link for existing subscribers to register for access that is appears on the left-hand navigation bar on the About Annuity Insight tab.
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