Athene's Chairman Sees Some Froth in Individual Annuity Market

By Allison Bell

News June 07, 2024 at 11:31 AM

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Jim Belardi — the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Athene — sees some retail annuity issuers competing too hard for the attention of independent marketing organizations.

Some are trying to buy the IMOs' business by offering crediting rates that are too high, Belardi said Thursday in New York, at a general session at S&P Global Ratings' latest insurance conference.

But "in general, that's not happening," Belardi said. "I'd characterize pricing as rational."

What it means: A man who helped build one of the biggest modern annuity issuers is happy with how most of the annuity market and related markets look.

Jim Belardi: In the 1980s, Belardi was an executive at AIG's Sun America Life unit.

The baby boomers were then in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

Belardi and some colleagues believed that the boomers were facing a retirement savings crisis.

The colleagues started Athene in 1989 to help fill the savings gap.

Athene is now part of Apollo Global Management. It has $23 billion in capital and $301 billion in assets. It ranked first in new U.S. individual annuity sales in 2023, with $36 billion in new sales, according to LIMRA data.

Belardi said the retirement savings crisis was getting worse.

"We've never been more bullish about the companies' prospects," he said.

One challenge Belardi sees is lack of financial resources at some of Athene's competitors.

Companies like Athene have brought in much of the new capital coming into the industry since 2010, and many traditional life insurers have been shedding capital by buying back their shares, Belardi said.

"I don't see how you can grow without capital," he said.

Jim Belardi. Credit: Allison Bell/ALM

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