Publicly traded annuity issuers are getting ready to start their fourth-quarter earnings release season.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. will kick things off Wednesday.

Principal Financial Group Inc. and Reinsurance Group of America Inc., a company that reinsures some annuity blocks, will continue the action Jan. 29.

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Three issuers will post their results after 4 p.m. on Jan. 31.

Last quarter, issuers were celebrating certainty about an 18-month postponement of the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, while getting more questions about the effects of interest rates, and about the health of the commercial real estate market.

This quarter, issuers will continue to get questions about interest rates.

New questions could include:

• What will the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including the deferred acquisition cost provisions, really do for, and to, annuity issuers?
• Is assuming responsibility for a large employer’s old, unwanted pension plan, through a pension risk transfer annuity arrangement, all that much different, in terms of risk, than writing individual annuities?
• What kinds of unpleasant surprises could be hiding in any old blocks of runoff business that annuity issuers happen to have on their books?

Some insurers are “mutual insurers.” A mutual insurer is owned by its policyholders.

Many other insurers are companies owned by private investors.

Mutual insurers and insurers owned by private investors have to file regular financial reports with insurance regulators, but they generally do not have to file financial reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Insurers that the SEC classifies as “publicly traded” — insurers owned by large numbers of investors — file quarterly and annual financial reports with the SEC.

Members of the public can find and read those reports by searching on the SEC’s public filing site. The SEC’s company search tool is available here.

Most publicly traded annuity issuers also hold live conference calls with securities analysts, to help the analysts understand their latest earnings reports. The issuers usually stream live audio of those calls on the web, and they post recordings of the calls on their websites. Agents or others who want to listen to the calls can get information about how to do so by visiting the investor relations sections on the issuers’ websites.

Here’s a look at some of the major publicly traded issuers’ anticipated earnings release dates.

Note that the release dates sometimes change.

JAN. 24

Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE:AMP)

JAN. 29

Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:PFG)

Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (NYSE:RGA)

JAN. 31

American Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:AFG)

Lincoln National Corp. (NYSE:LNC)

MetLife Inc. (NYSE:MET)

FEB. 7

American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. (NYSE:AEL)

Manulife Financial Corp. (NYSE:MFC)

Primerica Inc. (NYSE:PRI)

Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE:PRU)

Torchmark Corp. (NYSE:TMK)

FEB. 8

American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG)

FBL Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:FFG)

FEB. 12

Brighthouse Financial Inc. (NYSE:BHF)

FEB. 13

CNO Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:CNO)

FEB. 14

Sun Life Financial Inc. (NYSE:SLF)