Beacon Research announced Monday that annuities in several categories broke sales records in the third quarter of 2013. Total annuity sales were nearly $22.5 billion in the third quarter, up from $17 billion in the second quarter. Total annuity sales increased more than 35% since the third quarter of 2012,
"Quarter-over-quarter sales were up among all fixed annuity product types and, for the first time since 2008, in all major distribution channels," Jeremy Alexander, CEO of Beacon Research, said in a statement. "Sales of indexed annuities surpassed $10 billion for the first time, and nearly two-thirds of carriers experienced an increase in MVA annuity sales during the quarter."
Indexed annuity sales increased more than 10% over the second quarter to $10.1 billion. Sales for income annuities, including immediate and deferred income, reached $2.8 billion, also beating year-to-date and quarterly records. Deferred income annuities were especially popular, tripling since the third quarter of 2012. Beacon said that deferred income annuities account for 22% of all income annuity sales, an increase of 11% since last year.
New York Life was the top annuity issuer, bringing in $2.3 billion in total fixed annuity sales for the third quarter. Security Benefit came in second with $1.8 billion, followed by Allianz Life at $1.3 billion; Western National with $1.2 billion; and Great American with $1.1 billion.
Beacon noted that the top issuers for the quarter also led the industry in year-to-date sales.
