Insurers Try to Sell the World on Retirement Income Guarantees

The presentation title was, "Why People Don't Buy Annuities," and Klein pointed out that price is just of the barriers involved.

David Levenson, LIMRA's president, pointed out that the need is still obviously there: by 2045, there are likely to be 84 million retirees in the United States alone.

Speakers involved with the Alliance for Lifetime Income appeared on a panel about how to change the public's perception of annuities, and meet the looming demand for $780 billion in guaranteed lifetime income.

Analysts at the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute predicted in a new forecast that, in spite of consumers' current lack of focus on annuities, overall sales of individual annuities could increase to $280 billion by 2023, up from about $234 billion in 2018.

Rising interest rates should help insurers support a big increase in fixed annuity sales, and sales of variable annuities should continue to rebound, the analysts predicted.

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