Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Indexed, Income Annuity Sales Beat Quarterly, YTD Records

Beacon Research announced Monday that annuities in several categories broke sales records in the third quarter of 2013. Total annuity sales were nearly $22.5 billion in the third quarter, up from $17 billion in the second quarter. Total annuity sales increased more than 35% since the third quarter of 2012,

"Quarter-over-quarter sales were up among all fixed annuity product types and, for the first time since 2008, in all major distribution channels," Jeremy Alexander, CEO of Beacon Research, said in a statement. "Sales of indexed annuities surpassed $10 billion for the first time, and nearly two-thirds of carriers experienced an increase in MVA annuity sales during the quarter."

Indexed annuity sales increased more than 10% over the second quarter to $10.1 billion. Sales for income annuities, including immediate and deferred income, reached $2.8 billion, also beating year-to-date and quarterly records. Deferred income annuities were especially popular, tripling since the third quarter of 2012. Beacon said that deferred income annuities account for 22% of all income annuity sales, an increase of 11% since last year.

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New York Life was the top annuity issuer, bringing in $2.3 billion in total fixed annuity sales for the third quarter. Security Benefit came in second with $1.8 billion, followed by Allianz Life at $1.3 billion; Western National with $1.2 billion; and Great American with $1.1 billion.

Beacon noted that the top issuers for the quarter also led the industry in year-to-date sales.

Captive agents sold the most annuity products, followed by independent producers and wirehouses. Large and regional broker-dealers and independent broker-dealers were in fourth and fifth place for total third-quarter annuity sales.

"At the pace seen in the past two quarters, we expect total fixed annuity sales for 2013 to exceed last year's numbers for the first year-over-year increase since 2008," Alexander said. "The outlook for indexed and deferred income annuities remains strong, in particular, and we expect to see increases in fixed-rate annuities as well, should interest rate trends continue."

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