Donald Jay Korn | May 14
Immediate annuities, also known as income annuities and payout annuities, can replace disappearing corporate pensions, but sales have been tepid. Insurers have responded with some significant bells and whistles.
Mary Schroeder | May 07
Principal Life Insurance Co. plans to roll out a variable annuity called Principal Lifetime Income SolutionsSM on Aug. 1.
Donald Jay Korn | May 06
For years, Lincoln Financial has effectively been raising prices on its variable annuities, yet consumers keep buying. The company’s VA business exceeds desired levels now, so further price increases have been announced: cutbacks in benefits offered to consumers. The expected result is a boost in second-quarter business but a slowdown in the second half of 2013.
Jennifer Morrell | Apr 17
New product focuses on those approaching or already in retirement and is designed for maximized guaranteed lifetime income.
Margarida Correia | Apr 11
The programs generated a generous $521.6 million in income for the banks in 2012, the most they have ever produced in the five years that such data has been collected.
Hung Tran | Apr 03
Asset managers have taken notice of the the proliferation of alternative mutual funds in the retail and institutional channels and have changed their game plan accordingly.
Chris McMahon | Mar 28
Income annuity sales set new quarterly record, increase for fourth-consecutive quarter; fixed annuity sales drop 11 percent compared to 2011.
Teck Lim | Mar 21
“Interest rates are having a large impact on overall annuity sales,” says Catherine Theroux, director of Public Relations at LIMRA. “For fixed annuities, people are less inclined to lock in rates at this level.”
Margarida Correia | Mar 21
In 2012, banks sold $29.6 billion in annuities, down 20% from 2011. Fixed annuities fell 33% to $11.9 billion, while variable annuities slipped 10% to $17.7 billion.
Chris McMahon | Mar 18
Rapidly changing U.S. demographics are ikely to render industry assumptions ineffective, Conning says. Protection gap offers potential for future growth.
Donald Jay Korn | Mar 14
After hiring 3,597 full-time agents last year, New York Life is raising the ante, with a goal of adding 3,700 reps in 2013. Among the new hires, more than half are expected to be women or individuals who represent the “cultural markets,” as the company put it, referring specifically to the African-American, Chinese, Hispanic, Korean, South Asian, and Vietnamese communities.
Donald Jay Korn | Mar 13
More advisors say tax deferral will become increasingly important in annuity sales. In a recent poll by the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), 28% of advisors expect tax deferral to take on greater importance in the next five years, a “notable increase” from 20% of advisors expressing this opinion in 2011.
Mar 01
Karen Wimbish, head of retail retirement at Wells Fargo discusses her 16 years in the securities business.
Lee Conrad | Feb 22
Sales of deferred income annuities grew to more than $1 billion in 2012. But they are still a minor portion of the overall market, representing less than one percent of total annuity sales.
Margarida Correia | Feb 19
Men and women 35 – 64 with income of $150,000 - $249,000 may represent the ripest sales opportunities for advisors, according to poll by Nationwide Financial.
Bruce Givner | Feb 14
Tax Court Judge Elizabeth Paris handed the taxpayers a victory involving a powerful estate tax planning tool: private annuities.
Rachel F. Elson | Jan 23
The amount of money flowing into annuities declined last year more than 6% from prior-year levels, according to a report from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Chris McMahon | Jan 15
Consumers may be wary of life and annuity products as they confront more immediate financial concerns, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.
Donald Jay Korn | Jan 13
Lincoln Financial Group has selected the FireLight platform to automate and streamline its annuity applications.
Elizabeth Wine | Jan 01
On Wall Street profiles the most influential personalities in the advisory industry this year.
Dec 04
Industry wide, however, annuity sales dropped slightly in the third quarter, according to a report by Morningstar and Beacon.
Mason Braswell, Lorie Konish | Dec 01
In On Wall Street's sixth annual ranking, the young hotshots of The Street talk clients and strategy. Here's how this year's top 40 advisors under 40 conquered a tough market.
Donald Jay Korn | Nov 20
After six months of negative cash flows, non-qualified annuities turned positive in the third quarter.
Margarida Correia | Nov 02
But the increase comes from the fact that more banks began reporting for the first time— an apples-to-apples comparison is not so rosy.
Zachary Tracer and Noah Buhayar | Nov 02
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is offering to pay some clients to give up retirement products as Chief Executive Officer Liam McGee works to reduce risks tied to stock market declines and free up capital.
Margarida Correia | Oct 11
Consumers are increasingly going online to research insurance and annuity products, but the Internet is far from displacing insurance professionals from their roles.
Lee Conrad | Oct 10
Small banks had total investment revenue of $266 million for the first half, up 11% over the same time period last year: report.
Samantha Allen | Oct 09
Advisors report that clients request annuities more than any other unsolicited product, according to new research from Cerulli Associates.
Dave Lindorff | Oct 01
Indexed annuities have gained popularity while variable annuities have softened, as the players on the buy and sell side change.
Elizabeth Wine | Sep 27
The increase in both market volatility and interest from the Baby Boomers in generating retirement income should be a slam-dunk for variable annuities.
Teck Lim | Sep 26
TD Ameritrade announced Wednesday it will introduce access to a full range of competitively priced annuities to help independent registered investment advisors meet increasing client demand for retirement income solutions.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert | Sep 11
While annuities have become more widely accepted as a vital part of a retirement strategy, there are millions of Americans who still aren't opting for them.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert | Sep 11
While a number of major carriers have exited the annuity industry due to capital constraints, continued volatility and historically low interest rates, key players contend that there is still plenty of capacity to meet growing market demand.
Matt Ackermann | Sep 10
Seventy-three percent of annuity owners and 17% of non-owners agreed that annuities are an important part of a retirement strategy, compared to 55% and 8%, respectively a year earlier, according to the survey of investors and financial advisors released at the IRI 2012 Annual Meeting,
Katie Kuehner-Hebert | Sep 10
"The industry has been in an interesting transformation," said Catherine J. Weatherford, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute. "The financial crisis hit banks rapidly, but for the life insurance industry, it took a while for the issues from the crisis to develop."
Lee Conrad | Sep 06
Indexed annuity sales increased 8.3% and income annuities were up 6.1% in the second quarter, according to Beacon Research. It was the second-best quarter ever for those product types, Beacon said in a press release. Total fixed annuity sales were also up, but with a more muted 1% gain in the quarter. And they declined 17.2% from the year-ago period. …
Margarida Correia | Aug 20
Annuity sales in the second quarter of 2012 totaled $57 billion, down 8% from the year-ago quarter, according to LIMRA.
Donald Jay Korn | Aug 20
Lifelong income solutions for defined contribution plans are on the way. With defined benefit plans waning and life expectancy waxing, more retirees will need more guaranteed income than Social Security can provide.
Margarida Correia | Aug 17
More than three in four advisors expect to continue selling variable annuities and allocate 11% of their assets under management toward these products, according to Cogent Research.
Donald Jay Korn | Aug 13
In the first half of 2012, tons of cash flowed out of non-qualified annuities, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Aug 09
Stocks from three industry sectors stood out from the pack last month. Did you have your clients locked into any of these summer standouts?
Margarida Correia | Aug 08
Seventy-five percent of variable annuity buyers, 86% of indexed annuity buyers and 86% of traditional fixed annuity buyers reported being satisfied with their annuities.
Lee Conrad | Aug 01
Annuity income at banks overall increased; but an apples-to-apples comparison shows a clearer picture and tells a bleaker story.
Ann Marsh | Jul 10
Although overall activity in the annuity market has been down over the past 13 months, inflows in May increased by slightly more than 1% to $7.5 billion from $7.4 billion in April, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Margarida Correia | Jul 03
Bank holding companies raked in $118.4 billion in wealth management income in 2011, up 1.35% from $116.9 billion in 2010. The increase comes despite a lackluster fourth quarter, the industry’s weakest since the beginning of 2009.
Ed Slott | Jul 01
Mid-octogenarians could be getting a birthday gift from the IRS
Kylie Hennagin | Jun 28
New York Life says its Guaranteed Future Income Annuity product has garnered more than $500 million in premiums in less than a year.
Margarida Correia | Jun 28
As of March 31, U.S. retirement assets totaled $18.9 trillion, up 6.3% from $17.8 trillion in the previous quarter.
Kylie Hennagin | Jun 25
“The past few years of market volatility have demonstrated the importance of guaranteed income in retirement,” said Alison Salka, LIMRA corporate vice president and director of retirement research,
Margarida Correia | Jun 18
Advisors are more committed than ever to helping clients with their retirement income planning but they still face a host of challenges.
Mason Braswell | Jun 14
The new annuity products, which are being offered by wealth managers in the firm’s Advisor Asset Program, come in response to a growing demand among investors for a more guaranteed form of tax-deferred retirement income.
Margarida Correia | Jun 11
Income annuity sales in the first quarter climbed almost 23% to $2.16 billion from $1.75 billion a year ago. Indexed annuities, meanwhile, increased nearly 9% hitting $8.16 billion.
Donna Mitchell | Jun 06
Insurance companies and broker-dealers sold $7.4 billion million in annuity products in April, down from $7.7 billion in March, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation announced.
Juliette Fairley | May 22
MetLife noted as top seller of annuities, while Prudential leads variable annuity sales; overall, annuity sales decline markedly.
Larry Barrett | May 21
Morningstar has launched Annuity Intelligence, a web-based research and evaluation tool for advisors and broker-dealers charged with finding the best variable annuity products for their clients.
Margarida Correia | May 18
Indexed annuities were one bright spot in the market, hitting $8.1 billion in sales, up 14% from the year-ago period.
Margarida Correia | May 14
Jefferson National has beefed up its Monument Advisor variable annuity with a slew of new alternative investment options.
