About Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Our mission: Bringing practical business and technical intelligence to today's structured cabling professionals

For more than 30 years, Cabling Installation & Maintenance has provided useful, practical information to professionals responsible for the specification, design, installation and management of structured cabling systems serving enterprise, data center and other environments. These professionals are challenged to stay informed of constantly evolving standards, system-design and installation approaches, product and system capabilities, technologies, as well as applications that rely on high-performance structured cabling systems. Our editors synthesize these complex issues into multiple information products. This portfolio of information products provides concrete detail that improves the efficiency of day-to-day operations, and equips cabling professionals with the perspective that enables strategic planning for networks’ optimum long-term performance.

Throughout our annual magazine, weekly email newsletters and 24/7/365 website, Cabling Installation & Maintenance digs into the essential topics our audience focuses on.

  • Design, Installation and Testing: We explain the bottom-up design of cabling systems, from case histories of actual projects to solutions for specific problems or aspects of the design process. We also look at specific installations using a case-history approach to highlight challenging problems, solutions and unique features. Additionally, we examine evolving test-and-measurement technologies and techniques designed to address the standards-governed and practical-use performance requirements of cabling systems.
  • Technology: We evaluate product innovations and technology trends as they impact a particular product class through interviews with manufacturers, installers and users, as well as contributed articles from subject-matter experts.
  • Data Center: Cabling Installation & Maintenance takes an in-depth look at design and installation workmanship issues as well as the unique technology being deployed specifically for data centers.
  • Physical Security: Focusing on the areas in which security and IT—and the infrastructure for both—interlock and overlap, we pay specific attention to Internet Protocol’s influence over the development of security applications.
  • Standards: Tracking the activities of North American and international standards-making organizations, we provide updates on specifications that are in-progress, looking forward to how they will affect cabling-system design and installation. We also produce articles explaining the practical aspects of designing and installing cabling systems in accordance with the specifications of established standards.

Cabling Installation & Maintenance is published by Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B.

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Best’s Special Report: Individual Annuity Surrenders Dent Operating Profitability

Increasing surrenders on individual annuities drove a 27% decline in pre-tax net operating profitability despite record sales in recent years, according to a new AM Best report.

The Best’s Special Report, “Individual Annuity Surrenders Dent Operating Profitability,” states that surrenders increased by 21% to $280 billion in 2024, up from $232 billion in 2023, as higher interest rates and policyholders’ desire for better performing products have led to the uptick. Overall, the individual annuity composite’s net operating gain fell to $14.9 billion in 2024, compared with $20.5 billion in 2023.

“With the heightened surrender activity over the last few years, the industry now has nearly half of its individual annuity reserves within surrender charge protection or can’t be surrendered at all, compared with an average of 37% between 2014-2021,” said Kaitlin Piasecki, industry research analyst, Industry Research and Analytics, AM Best.

On the heels of strong momentum in 2023, annuity sales were solid in 2024, led by variable annuity products such as RILAs. The rapid growth has heightened competition, including new private equity/asset manager-owned insurers looking to capitalize on the difference between the cost of liabilities (i.e., crediting rates on products) and potential investment returns. Many companies in the individual annuity composite also have been utilizing reinsurance to manage their growth and capital levels. According to the report, in the last five years, the amount of reserves ceded to reinsurers has increased by 86%, with the biggest portion moving offshore to affiliates. Private equity/asset manager-owned insurers are the lead drivers behind these assets moving offshore. These companies also drive the trend of utilizing offshore affiliates for reinsurance.

“Ceding to offshore affiliated reinsurers allows insurers to manage capital, transfer risk and save on taxes, but AM Best believes that this reduces transparency and is generally a credit negative for the market,” said Jason Hopper, associate director, Industry Research and Analytics, AM Best. “Private equity/asset manager-owned insurers now account for about one-quarter of the companies in the individual annuity market, nearly one-third of gross premium written in 2024, but also more than half of the reserves ceded.”

The report notes that insurers with private equity/asset manager parents have higher allocations to private placements, asset-backed securities, mortgage loans and affiliated investments than other organizational structures. Insurers also have increased allocations to private credit, which allows for flexibility of structures, although these instruments are bespoke, less transparent and less liquid, which results in a higher risk premium for investors.

Looking ahead, while annuity companies’ investment incomes were in a favorable position at the beginning of 2025, yields have since declined and equity markets have given back some of their previous returns as economic uncertainty has grown.

To access the full copy of this special report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=355271.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2025 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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