NU Online News Service, May 11, 2004, 10:25 a.m. EDT – Banks sold nearly $4.5 billion of annuities in March, just 5% shy of the record monthly sales of $4.7 billion achieved in March 2003.[@@]
Month-to-month sales were up significantly as annuity sales in banks surged by 24% in March over February's $3.6 billion, according to the monthly survey by Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J.
Sales of both fixed and variable annuities have improved for 2 straight months, notes Kenneth Kehrer, whose firm conducts the survey.
"This is a break from the recent past where we have observed a teeter-totter effect, with sales of fixed annuities moving in the opposite direction of VA sales," says Kehrer. "When one went up, the other went down."
VA sales of $1.65 billion for the month were actually slightly above the level for March 2003, when banks sold $1.6 billion worth, Kehrer reports.
