Is there a sense of “swimming upstream” when trying to propagate goal-based investing--as described in your new book Risk Less and Prosper--among existing financial advisors? Conventional practices and economic incentives are so heavily skewed towards modern portfolio theory and growing assets under management. 

Canadian insurer Sun Life recently announced that it will exit the variable annuity and individual life insurance markets in the United States.

Continued equity market volatility has resulted in a variable annuity business that is plagued with uncertainty and higher costs.

Insurers such as Sun Life offer guarantees that are linked to the performance of underlying equity portfolios.  These guarantees are a liability for the insurance company, and equity market volatility contributes to the cost of these liabilities.

Metlife posted record variable annuity sales of $8.6 billion during the most recent quarter.  The VA sales record represents an 86 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

MetLife also announced that it will be lowering the returns offered on future variable annuity offerings in an effort to “re-price and improve the risk profile” of their product offerings.

Record low interest rates have made it difficult to sustain the richer product features contained in the current variable annuity offerings.

The 2008 financial crisis hit the Hartford Financial Services Group harder than many of its peers.

At a recent investor meeting, executives from The Hartford discussed how the company has positioned itself to avoid a repeat of 2008—largely through de-risking of its balance sheet.

The following is a high-level representation of changes in the composition of assets in The Hartford’s investment portfolio:

It is challenging to think of another sector of the U.S. economy that has the same puzzling mix of characteristics as the annuity industry.  Consider, for example, some of the following contradictory features:

The popularity of living benefit features is one thing that seems clear when looking at variable annuity sales data.  The vast majority of variable annuity sales include one of several living benefit or guaranteed living benefit features. 

National Underwriter reports that Bellevue, Washington-based Symetra will be selling a line of low cost variable annuities that do not contain any living benefit features. 

Apparently Symetra considers the GLB-free variable annuity as an underserved niche. 

An interesting article from Darla Mercado at Investment News discusses a recent report on the U.S. variable annuity industry from Cerulli Associates. 

While no secret to industry analysts, the report provides a reminder that the vast majority of variable annuity sales in the United States are exchanges of existing products.

The result is a sort of recycling of variable annuity assets rather than net inflows of new assets into the industry.

U.S. variable annuity sales grew by 24 percent from the same period a year earlier. Variable annuity sales for the first quarter of 2011 totaled $38.9 billion.

LIMRA reports that 16 of the top 20 variable annuity providers experienced sales growth relative to the previous year.

Prudential led the industry with a 40 percent increase and $6.81 billion in variable annuity sales in the first quarter.  Sales at MetLife increased 41 percent to $5.68 billion.

Life insurance companies MetLife and Prudential Financial both reported quarterly earnings that exceeded analysts' estimates.

MetLife reported record variable annuity sales and a sharp rise in its retirement product fees.

Prudential also reported strength in its annuity business.

While annuity sales were strong at both companies, higher hedging costs had an adverse impact on the reported earnings of MetLife and Prudential.

Source: Reuters

Jack Marrion heads a research consultancy focused on the annuity industry and John Olsen is a practicing financial advisor.

Both Jack and John have previously published books that are widely recognized as authoritative resources for the industry.

I had an opportunity to speak to them about their most recent book titled Index Annuities: A Suitable Approach (click here to visit the website for the book).