Limra: Jackson National Leads Individual and Variable Annuities Sales for 2015
March 18, 2016 by Dennis Gorski, managing editor-online, BestWeek: Dennis.Gorski@ambest.com
WINDSOR, Conn. – Jackson National Life’s sale of individual annuities in 2015 led the industry, according to year-end figures compiled by Limra’s Secure Retirement Institute.
The company’s total sales exceeded $24.49 billion, about 10% of the industrywide sales total of $236.67 billion for 2015.
Runner-up was American International Group, notching $19.99 billion in sales for 2015. Third-place finisher was Lincoln Financial Group, with $14.63 billion in sales, Limra said.
“Indexed annuities have broken sales records for the past seven years and now represent nearly a quarter of the total annuity market,” said Todd Giesing, assistant research director at the institute, in the report.
The report also listed the leaders in variable, fixed, fixed-rate and indexed products.
Jackson National’s variable annuities sales led the group, at $23.1 billion, with TIAA-CREF ($12.75 billion) and Lincoln Financial ($11.5 billion) following. Total variable annuity sales for 2015 were $133 billion, the study said.
In fixed annuities, Allianz Life of North America was first, with $8.77 billion, followed by New York Life ($8.64 billion) and AIG ($8.5 billion). Total sales of these products in 2015 were $103.68 billion, according to the institute.
In fixed-rate annuities, New York Life was the leader, with $8.64 billion in sales. Next was AIG ($5.21 billion) and third was Forethought Annuity ($3.73 billion). Total sales last year came to $49.1 billion, the institute reported.
The indexed annuities category was led by Allianz, with $8.75 billion; then American Equity Investment Life ($6.79 billion) and in third, Great American ($3.69 billion).
The institute said it has observed a number of companies, which have traditionally been strong in the variable annuity market, now increasing their attention on the indexed annuity market.
“We believe indexed annuity sales will continue to grow and felt it was important to publicly release the sales leaders,” Giesing said. “We expect indexed annuity products will retain their current exemption status under the proposed [federal] fiduciary rule, and that more companies will enter or increase their focus on this market. As a result, indexed annuity sales will see double-digit growth in 2016.”
Limra’s numbers hew closely to those released March 17 by life insurance and annuities consultancy Wink Inc. (Best’s News Service, March 17, 2016).
