7 Top Q1 Annuity Earnings Surprises

Big annuity issuers continued to be remarkably happy with their annuity businesses in the first quarter. Some may have had a harder time competing for sales or holding on to assets than others, but executives generally expressed joy about the current high level of consumer excitement about annuities. Executives from the big insurers that sell stock to the public hold conference calls every three months to talk to securities analysts, the Wall Street representatives who try to help investors understand what's going on inside public companies. Executives tend to give a relatively balanced assessment of conditions while on the calls. This time around, the assessments of annuity market conditions sounded cheerful. Chris Blunt, the chief executive officer of F&G Annuities & Life, told the securities analysts who participated in F&G's first-quarter earnings call, "We have more sales opportunity than capital right now." Rain might fall sometime, but, in the first quarter, executives and securities analysts had the luxury of looking at a clear blue sky and wondering what kinds of clouds might eventually show up. For a look at seven other surprises that emerged from the issuers' calls, see the gallery above.