Retirement Income Journal
The information forum of the decumulation industry.

With the U.S. and Canadian Olympic hockey teams facing off in Vancouver, B.C., last Sunday night, a hockey metaphor seemed to pervade the Insured Retirement Institute's annual marketing conference, held in New York early this week.

That was apt, given that much of the annual meeting could be characterized as a friendly face-off between annuity manufacturers and their third-party distributors. But in this case, of course, the product manufacturers don't want to beat the distributors. They want to supply them.

Easier said than done. This year's marketing conference, which drew some 530 or so registered guests and 22 listed exhibitors, wasn't as crisis-stricken as last year's meeting. But the basic marketing challenge facing annuity manufacturers hasn't changed much in twelve months.