NU Online News Service, Oct. 17, 2003, 10:55 a.m. EDT – Bank sales of annuities inched up in August to $4.3 billion, from $4.1 billion in the same month a year earlier, a study by Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J., reports.
The August 2003 total was also up 2% from $4.2 billion sold in July 2003 but still 3% below the June total of $4.4 billion.
"Banking industry annuity sales in August were just 9% below March, the best monthly total in history," says Brad Powell, president of Jackson National Life Insurance Company's institutional marketing group, Lansing, Mich., which sponsors the monthly survey. "As banks' fixed annuity sales have slipped from their record highs over the past year, variable annuity sales have recovered and have generally compensated for declining fixed annuity sales."
However, Powell noted that bank VA sales slipped in August for the second straight month, after six consecutive months of improving sales. Their $1.7 billion of variable annuities in August was about 3% less than in July, although still 70% above December's low of $1 billion.
"August's bank VA sales were higher than in any month from October 2002 through March 2003," Powell points out.
Fixed annuity sales in banks fell to $2.6 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier. However, sales of the product during the month improved 7.5% over July's $2.4 billion.
