'If a guy is getting ready to lose his house, and the VA account is the only liquidity he’s got, he’s not going say, ‘But our guarantee is in the money so we won’t touch it,’ said Jackson National chief Barry Stowe about his firm's record 2015 VA sales--and the risks that success could bring.

The DOL may have put a crimp in the sales of the hot-selling but controversial annuity product when, without specific warning, it raised the regulatory bar for the sale of fixed indexed annuities. (This article is free today.)

The new regulations could have a "negative impact on the sale of certain annuity products, drive changes in product offerings, distribution strategies and compensation structures and lead to increased operational costs,” a Fitch release said.

'We will host several events, where industry leaders tasked with implementation can share their ideas and perspectives on the challenges created by the DOL fiduciary rule," said a release from the LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute.

'With the pending DOL rule, we feel that Sawtooth is helping us to be uniquely positioned to help our advisors satisfy the requirements of the new rule,” said a release from Advisors Excel in Topeka, KS.

The "Earnings Optimizer" will cost 40 basis points per year for contracts owners or annuitant under age 70. The cost will be 70 basis points per year for those ages 70 to 75.