Wink: Indexed Annuity Sales Hit All-Time Highs for Quarter and Full
March 22, 2016 by By Dennis Gorski, managing editor-online, BestWeek: Dennis.Gorski@ambest.com
PLEASANT HILL, Iowa – Indexed annuity sales reached record highs for the fourth-quarter and full-year 2015, according to a new report by insurance and annuity markets consultancy Wink Inc.
Sales in the quarter were $15.5 billion, a more than 30% gain over a year ago, and rose 13% to $53 billion for the full year, according to Sheryl Moore, president and chief executive officer of Wink Inc.
Allianz Life rang up the most quarterly sales, at $2.26 billion, for a 14.5% market share, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report. American Equity came in second, with $2.08 billion in sales and 13.3% market share; and Nationwide took third place, at $1.3 billion in sales and market share of 8.3%.
Fourth place went to American International Group, with $1.1 billion in indexed annuity sales and market share of 7.1%. Rounding out the top five for the quarter is Great American Insurance Group, with $979.8 million in sales and 6.2% share.
2015 indexed annuity sales totals show Allianz in the lead spot as well, with $8.74 billion in sales and market share of 16.4%. In second place is American Equity Cos., racking up $6.95 billion in sales and 13.1% market share. Third place for the year went to Great American Insurance Group, with $3.69 billion in sales and market share of 6.9%.
Fourth place was claimed by AIG, with sales of $3.29 billion and a 6.2% market share. Fifth went to Athene USA, which sold $2.54 billion and had market share of 4.8%.
In addition, Wink recently expanded its report’s coverage to include to include traditional fixed annuity and multi-year guaranteed annuity product lines. Sixty-five fixed and multi-guaranteed annuity carriers participated in the compilation, Wink said.
Total traditional fixed annuity sales for the quarter reached $2.02 billion, Wink said. Topping the fourth quarter for fixed annuity sales is Jackson National Life, at $187.2 million and a 9.2% market share. Second is Knights of Columbus, with $158.9 million and 7.8% market share, and third is MassMutual Life, with $116.4 million in sales and 5.7% market share.
For multi-year guaranteed annuities, where quarterly sales hit $6.77 billion, the top finisher was AIG, with $1.13 billion in sales and 16.6% of the market. Next was New York Life, with sales of $1.05 billion and 15.4% market share; and third was Forethought Life, with sales of $727.5 million and a 10.7% market share.
Indexed life sales is the fourth market category Wink analyzed. Total sales for the quarter reached $541.6 million.
First-place Transamerica reported total indexed life sales of $76.9 million, giving the company a 14.1% market share. Second was Pacific Life, which had $53.4 million in sales and a 9.8% share; and then National Life Group, with sales of $45 million and market share of 8.3%. Their combined market share was 32.3%.
Those three companies were the top three finishers for the year as well, Wink said, with sales of $272.3 million, $201.2 million and $147.2 million, respectively.
