American Equity Committed to Independent Channel, Despite BIC
April 24, 2017 by Cyril Tuohy
Despite a drop in fixed indexed annuity sales last year, the president of American Equity Investment Life Insurance Co. said Friday the company has no intention of steering sales away from the independent agent channel.
FIA sales at the company fell 16 percent to $5.7 billion in 2016 compared to 2015 but the drop had more to do with competition from Security Benefit Life coming back into the income guarantee market and a newly competitive Athene USA, executives said.
Overall, the indexed annuity market cooled significantly at the end of last year as fourth quarter sales fizzled 13 percent to $14 billion compared with the year-ago period, according to industry tracker LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
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Wink’s Note: According to Wink’s Sales & Market Report, American Equity’s 2016 overall indexed annuity sales were down over 15.7% from 2015 sales; ending the year with over $5.8 billion. Total 4th Quarter, 2016 indexed annuity sales for the industry were down 14.5% over the previous year, however, the 2016 year-end sales were up over 9.7% over 2015.
