Annuities

MetLife noted as top seller of annuities, while Prudential leads variable annuity sales; overall, annuity sales decline markedly.

Morningstar has launched Annuity Intelligence, a web-based research and evaluation tool for advisors and broker-dealers charged with finding the best variable annuity products for their clients.

Indexed annuities were one bright spot in the market, hitting $8.1 billion in sales, up 14% from the year-ago period.

Jefferson National has beefed up its Monument Advisor variable annuity with a slew of new alternative investment options.

Fidelity Investments has added four mutual funds to a variable annuity product it launched in 2005, opting for simplicity in an era where advisors and clients are wary of complexity in variable annuities.

Clients interested in guaranteed lifetime income? Now you have one more option to offer, courtesy of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co.

The company has unveiled two new asset allocation portfolios and two new sub-advisors.

Revenue from the sale of investment and life insurance services at banks and credit unions increased 10% in 2011, led by a significant boost in advisory services.

Bank holding companies earned $2.84 billion from the sale of annuities in 2011, up 10.4% from the previous year, according to a new report from Michael White Associates.

Even though retirement portfolios have nearly recovered from the financial crisis, investors have not, say financial advisors in a recent survey.

Allianz will still own about 5% percent of the company, worth approximately $464 million.

Advisors have increased their recommendations of variable annuities since 2008, regardless of whether they were annuity supporters or skeptics.

Advisors have increased their recommendations of variable annuities since 2008, regardless of whether they were annuity supporters or skeptics.

Advisors have increased their recommendations of variable annuities since 2008, regardless of whether they were annuity supporters or skeptics.

In the wake of The Hartford’s recent decision to place its individual annuity business “into a runoff,” Edward Jones this week has stopped offering the firm’s annuities and has suspended sales of new life insurance policies and retirement plans pending the eventual resolution of the uncertainty surrounding these businesses.

Paulson, rating agencies respond to The Hartford’s decision to place individual annuity business into run off and pursue divestiture options for individual life, Woodbury Financial and retirement plans.

The uncertainty is ‘unbelievably disruptive’ for advisors at a time when clients are beginning to have more confidence in the markets and investing. Likely candidates to buy could include Cetera and Lincoln Financial, observers say.

Placing its individual annuity business into runoff, The Hartford is pursuing the sale or "other strategic alternatives" of its individual life, Woodbury Financial Services and retirement plans businesses.

Some seniors paid extra for riders that no longer applied because of their age, FINRA says.

Qualified accounts, such as 401(k)s and IRAs, retained 42.5% of the $37.6 billion that flowed into the accounts for a net asset inflow of $22.4 billion.