Doing a web search I see that this was complained about in 2005. It's now 2011 and it would be nice if it were dealt with.
The issue is variable annuities, specifically updating their price.

I understand that these can't be updated through the standard stock ticker mechanism because (as I understand it) the legalities surrounding annuities mean each one is a specific contract with the holder, and the price of the units in the contract changes in some way that is holder specific to represent management fees. (So rather than management fee being taken by reducing your number of units slightly, it is taken by reducing your unit price slightly.)

Regardless of whether I have the specific details correct, let's accept that something like that does hold.
Even so, it seems that if one has automatic banking set up with the relevant institution, there should be a path into the institution to acquire this price. In my case I certainly have auto banking set up for the variable annuity, and it is connected enough to be able to download changes in the annuity (ie buying and selling units). But it does not automatically update prices, which seems just silly. At the very least, when I select
Online/Download "Account name" Transactions from the menu, it seems like my prices should be updated.