On the first full day of the Insured Retirement Institute’s annual conference in Boston this week, Prudential’s Bruce Ferris presented a slide on which a bar chart of annual variable annuity sales overlay a line graph of the S&P 500’s yearly performance.

The close correlation between VA sales with the ups and downs of U.S. equities prices was evident, and Ferris called it an “unacceptable” pattern for the industry’s future growth.

Later, Ferris commented that another guest speaker, on viewing the same slide, had said, “It should be the opposite.” 

That slide seemed to sum up the basic dilemma of VA manufacturers. They’d like to position VAs as a financial product for all seasons—a parasol in the sun and umbrella in the rain—but it’s tough to have it both ways. Those who live by the bull appear likely to die by the bull.