Annuity Sales

In yet another sign of variable annuity capacity constraints, Jackson National recently announced that they are approaching the upper range for 2012 sales of variable annuities with guaranteed living benefits . Jackson’s November 8 press release indicates the company has roughly $1 billion worth of remaining 2012 capacity. Jackson indicated that this remaining capacity will be used for new product sales and that they will no longer accept new 1035 exchange business or qualified transfers...

The Association of British Insurers announced that the organization will adopt a new code of conduct that could have a meaningful impact on annuity sales. The decision is in response to criticisms of annuity industry sales processes. Critics have argued that current industry practices are inconsistent and opaque, and that this confusing annuity shopping environment ends-up costing financial services consumers real money. A recent report published by a British pension group suggests that current...

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...

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: Reduced holdings of commercial mortgage-backed securities Reduced subordinated...