NU Online News Service, Sept. 19, 2003, 5:31 p.m. EDT – Banks reported $4.2 billion in annuity sales for July, down 7.1% from $4.5 billion for July 2002, reports Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J.
Fixed annuity sales declined to $2.4 billion in July, from $3.5 billion in the comparable month in 2002, while variable annuity sales actually increased to $1.8 billion, from $1 billion.
"As banks' fixed annuity sales have slipped from their record highs over the past year, variable annuities have recovered and have nearly compensated for declining fixed annuities," says Brad Powell, president of the institutional marketing group at Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Lansing, Mich., which sponsors the monthly survey.
"July's bank VA sales were higher than in any month from January 2002 until May 2003," Powell says.
Kenneth Kehrer, whose firm conducts the survey, notes that bank FA sales have fallen in three of the past four months.
