NU Online News Service, March 6, 11:31 a.m. – AnnuityNet Inc., a company that develops Web-based annuity distribution systems and services, says it processed a record $2.1 billion in annuity transactions in 2001.
The processing figure represents record annual volume for annuity transactions by an e-commerce technology provider, according to AnnuityNet.
The Leesburg, Va.-based company sells technology that links banks, broker-dealers and other "point-of-sale distributors" with the insurance carriers that create and underwrite the annuities. AnnuityNet says its technology creates a "paperless stream" of communications for processing annuity applications, servicing contracts and managing the underlying investments.
"While there are a number of other vendors offering technology solutions in the annuity sales and servicing marketplace, none are processing on an annual basis anything close to the dollar volume demonstrated by the AnnuityNet platform," the company says in a statement announcing its 2001 volume.
The announced level of business puts AnnuityNet in a category with other "small to mid-size players" in the annuity category, says Chuck Johnston, an insurance information technology expert at the Meta Group, Stamford, Conn.
AnnuityNet "can be used by a manufacturer as a distribution platform, or a distributor can use them as a front office," Johnston says. "That gives them the ability to do a lot of transactions."
