AIG SunAmerica Asset Management Corp., New York, led all carriers in annuity sales in banks in the second quarter of 2004.[@@]
AIG sold more than $2.8 billion worth of annuities in banks in the quarter, up 30% from $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2003, according to Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J.
The strongest annuity growth in the bank channel was registered by Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Ind., which increased sales 279% from year-earlier levels, to $91 million.
Robust bank growth also was reported by the following companies:
- New York Life Insurance Company, New York, from $249 million to $676 million.
- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Springfield, Mass., from $79 million to $255 million.
- Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., from $120 million to $267 million.
- Principal Financial Group Inc., Des Moines, Iowa, from $80 million to $185 million.
Most of the growth came from sales of fixed annuities, according to Kenneth Kehrer, head of the firm that bears his name.
"It was a bad quarter for variable annuities," Kehrer says.
