Banks, B/Ds To Overtake Independent Agents In FIA Sales
August 2, 2016 by Cyril Tuohy
Banks and insurance broker/dealers will overtake the independent agent channel in selling fixed indexed annuities “likely someday.” That’s according to the CEO of American Equity Life, a top FIA seller.
FIAs, which have recorded torrid sales recently, are sold mostly through independent agents. However, with Department of Labor regulators raising investment advice standards, FIAs will be more difficult for agents to sell.
That has left an opening for banks and broker/dealers to take market share away from the independent agents. This idea was reiterated recently by American Equity’s president and CEO John Matovina.
Over the long term, banks and broker/dealers offer “a far greater opportunity than what we have with independent agents,” he said.
The independent agent channel is “a little more mature in terms of market” than banks and broker/dealers, Matovina said. In the independent agent channel, there’s “not necessarily a clear identification of where that distribution will be replenished from,” he added.
Matovina, along with several other American Equity executives, spoke at the Des Moines Insurance Conference last month.
American Equity, with about 540,000 policyholders, was the No. 2 seller of FIAs last year with nearly $7 billion in sales, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report.
More than $52 billion worth of FIAs were sold last year, Wink’s also reported. Click HERE to read more… INN news articles may require a subscription to view.
