Experts across the retirement income industry will meet at the second Vision IRI conference starting Monday in Williamsburg, Virginia. Executives of insurance companies, asset managers, broker-dealers, banks and distributors, as well as some of the industry's top financial advisors, will be in attendance.
The agenda for this year includes speakers from across the industry, including Dennis Glass, CEO of Lincoln Financial, Mark King, CEO of adidas Group North America, political analysts Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook, and many others.
Andrew Simonelli, director of communications and marketing for the Insured Retirement Institute, expects more than 300 attendees. He tells ThinkAdvisor that IRI members seem excited and positive.
"After solid second-quarter sales results, and based on the feedback I'm hearing from our members, there is a tremendous amount of energy…I fully expect the conference to reflect this spirit," Simonelli said.
The conference comes at a time when second-quarter fixed and variable annuity sales are at a three-year high. Citing data reported by Beacon Research and Morningstar Inc., IRI reported that sales rose to $59.9 billion, a 6.8% increase from the previous quarter's $56.1 billion in sales – and a 9.9% increase from the second quarter in 2013, when sales were $54.5 billion.
