Annuities

Financial services firms have yet to create a strong retirement income plan, Cogent finds.

More retirement think tanks are getting on board with the idea of including annuities in 401(k) plans, but so far, only a handful of large employers have this as an option.

The company increased sales by 14% last year, surpassing $1 billion for the first time in its history.

The reasons to buy long-term care insurance aren’t new. What is new, though, is who boomer clients are buying such insurance for: their parents.

Guaranteed living benefits may now be synonymous with variable annuities, but unless insurers rein in costs and restore benefits, sales may continue to slide.

Sales declined 11% from the previous quarter and 40% from a year earlier.

Whitehouse plans to tax the “non-earned” income of high earners to pay for Medicare could hurt annuity sales, claims a lobbyist for the insurance industry.

While variable annuity sales eke out a 3% gain, all other areas suffer significant declines.

A booming time for exciting variable annuity riders must give way to a new era of stabilization and rationalization.

Bank-based advisors produced an average $16,728 in December, up from just $14,712 in November.

Transamerica Life Insurance Co. has enhanced the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit schedule for its Retirement Income Choice 1.2 and Retirement Income Choice 1.4 annuity riders. Each rider now pays one percentage more a year.

Bank brokerage revenue fell 14% in 2009 in relative terms across banks of all sizes, according to new data from Kehrer-LIMRA.

While many providers jumped off the variable annuity bandwagon, Sun Life has decided to increase sales.

The Labor and Treasury Departments have issued a request for information to determine whether annuities belong in 401(k)s. Specifically, the agencies want to know the benefits and the drawbacks to receiving retirement income in installments.

To help the middle-class save for retirement, President Obama may have also given a boost to the annuities sector.

The White House plans to promote “the availability of annuities and other forms of guaranteed lifetime income, which transform savings into guaranteed future income, reducing the risks that retirees will outlive their savings or that their retirees’ living standards will be eroded by investment losses or inflation.”

MassMutual reported record sales of its life insurance products last year.

Third-quarter annuity commissions rose 12.9% to $669.8 million from the previous quarter.

Axa Equitable’s new product comes at a time when variable annuity providers are doing lots of tinkering with their offerings.

After a strong 2009, the company hopes to leap into the top five by the end of 2011.