Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP)is staying on the same path in the life insurance and annuity markets.
Executives at the Minneapolis-based financial services company said Tuesday that they are continuing to cope with low interest rates by focusing on the sale of variable products that are light on guarantees.
Jim Cracchiolo, the CEO, talked about life and annuity products during a conference call the company held to go over first-quarter earnings with securities analysts.
Cracchiolo told the analysts that Ameriprise is arranging to reinsure its remaining block of fixed annuity business.
In the variable annuity market, the company is promoting the sale of products without living benefits, or with only partial protection against loss of account value. Sales were 33% higher than they were in the first quarter of 2020, and variable annuities without living benefits now account for 64% of the company's variable annuity sales.
In the life market, Ameriprise is focusing on the sale of variable universal life (VUL), rather than indexed universal life. VUL sales were up 76%, year-over-year.
"We're focused on making sure we have the right product for this rate environment, while maintaining strong underwriting," Cracchiolo said.
Ameriprise as a whole reported $437 million in net income for the latest quarter on $3.4 billion in revenue, compared with $1.9 billion in net income on $3 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2020.
The Retirement & Protection Solutions unit recorded $183 million in pretax adjusted operating income on $787 million in revenue, up from $167 million in operating earnings on $759 million in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
Sales of variable annuities increased 30%, to $1.5 billion, the company said.
