Annuities

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.

After years of adding innumerable bells and whistles to annuities to attract investors, insurance carriers have begun to prune their offerings—not just to simplify them but to reduce their indemnification, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The tortoise strategy seems to be working.