Variable Insurance Products

Creating effective variable products for a competitive marketplace

Dechert has an active practice in guiding insurance clients through the development and marketing of securities-based products, including variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts. Our team collaborates with many leading insurers to help create innovative investment products that meet customer needs while addressing complex regulatory requirements.

Our work encompasses investment-oriented products that are both registered and unregistered, onshore and offshore, and designed for the individual, pension and corporate markets. In addition to supporting insurance products, our team is the U.S. leader in representing underlying mutual funds, their boards and advisers. We have been trailblazers in creating innovative funds, including manager-of-managers funds, funds-of-funds, and master-feeder structures. We have also been a high-profile advocate for overhauling the process used by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for insurance companies seeking to change underlying funds in a substitution process.

Clients rely on us for guidance in development, structuring and design of new products and new product features; distribution and sales practices, including those employed by broker-dealers and insurance producers who distribute variable contracts; and suitability and supervision issues, including implications for sales practices.

Clients seek our advice on investments in privately placed products; reorganizations of variable products and their underlying funds; due diligence on variable products, mutual funds and regulated entities for clients acquiring insurance company complexes; and integration of registered entities post-acquisition.

Dechert lawyers are well known in the industry for their knowledge and insights. Team members write and lecture extensively on variable products, other insurance products and underlying funds, and the firm’s materials have been cited by the SEC.