Morningstar issues quarterly VA survey
Trends appearing in a slow quarter: A focus on 'investment-only' contracts, buybacks to reduce liabilities, and new living benefit structures that shift risk to the contract owner.
Annuities
Getting the Exclusion Ratio (Without Annuitizing)
AXA and, most recently, Lincoln Financial, are marketing variable annuities that combine investment flexibility with variable income options that (for non-qualified contracts) allow regular tax-favored distributions without annuitization.
With ‘Daily+4,’ Forethought VA gets creative
With the Daily +4, each day that the contract value reaches a new high, the withdrawal base steps up to capture the new value. At the end of the...
VAs’ negative cash flow exceeds $1 billion in 1Q2014
With sales of $6.4 billion, up from $5.5 billion in 4Q2013, Jackson National was the only major VA issuer whose sales grew in the first quarter, according to Morningstar.
Total U.S. Annuity Sales Up 13% YOY: IRI
The year-over-year sales growth was supported by continued high levels of fixed annuity sales, which totaled $22.6 billion during the first quarter, according to Beacon Research.
An Algorithm That Loves Annuities
PrARI, the retirement product allocation calculator that Cannex recently acquired with its purchase of the Qwema Group, shows advisers how to maximize retirement income (or legacy) using a blend...
Voya hires Milliman to hedge its closed VA block
In 2010, Voya Financial stopped actively writing new retail variable annuity products with substantial guarantee features and separated its closed block of VA business from its ongoing businesses, according...
Ten ‘emerging developments’ in FIAs: Oliver Wyman
Several charts in Oliver Wyman's brief but informative new report on fixed indexed annuities provide useful overviews and snapshots of the evolving FIA market and the companies that populate...
Don’t look for another boom year for life/annuity stocks: A.M. Best
“Further underperformance is expected as stocks are trading at historically high valuations,” the ratings agency said in a release.
Annuity Sales Rose 11% in 1Q2014: LIMRA
Despite the growing number of issuers, DIA sales were down 13% from 4Q2013. It was the first quarter-over-quarter decline for sales of DIA products since LIMRA SRI began tracking...
Ruark completes study of FIA surrender patterns
The study covered the period 2007 through third quarter of 2013 and consisted of 9.3 million contract years and 380,000 surrenders.
MetLife’s New DIA, and Its Competition
This story includes a handy chart that can help you compare the features of the deferred income annuity contracts currently offered by eleven U.S. life insurers. MetLife’s is the...
Prudential launches new SPIA
'This launch is reflective of a broader strategy of growth through diversification. We want a broader, complementary solution-set that fits the company’s capital deployment strategy,' said Bruce Ferris, president...
Reinsurance once again available to VA issuers: Fitch
But “it is unclear how much of an impact this will have on the risk profile of VA writers,” a Fitch release said.
Is Social Security Unsociable to Annuities?
Virtually all American retirees already own a pension that's more generous than any retail annuity could ever be: their Social Security benefits. But how much does the entitlement "crowd...
The “income message” isn’t getting through: EBRI/MetLife survey
In a survey, the provision of income projections to 401(k) participants was not enough of a "nudge" to motivate many workers to contribute more to their accounts--perhaps because many...
In 2013, Jackson National Broke Sales Records; VA Industry Broke Even
Lincoln, SunAmerica, and Aegon notched 36.9%, 39.3%, and 59.3% sales gains in 2013, respectively, according to Morningstar's quarterly Variable Annuity Sales and Assets Survey. Prudential and MetLife ended...
Prudential adds an accumulation VA
The new Premier Investment VA contract will be offered in B-shares and no-surrender-period C shares, with insurance charges of 110 and 135 basis points, respectively. Contract owners can choose...
New York Life paid out more than $1 billion to SPIA owners in 2013
The average monthly payout was $682, or about half the average monthly Social Security benefit of $1,294, the company said in a release.
The Retirement Industry Conference
Want lots of 2013 data on annuity sales and VA rider use? You’ll find it—plus Richard Thaler’s crowd-stumping riddle—in this roundup of news from the recent LIMRA/LOMA/SoA conference in...
