Sales of Index-Linked Variable Annuities Shine Again

Combined sales of both variable and fixed annuities fell 8%, year-over-year, to $56 billion.

Here's what happened to sales of some subtypes of annuities, other than registered index-linked annuities, that are included in the survey results summary:

• Fixed-rate deferred annuities: $9.8 billion (down 35%)
• Indexed annuities that are classified as non-variable products: $16 billion (down 12%)
• Variable annuities, excluding indexed variable annuities: $21 billion (up 11%)
• Deferred income annuities: $530 million (down 16%)
• Fixed immediate annuities: $1.9 billion (down 32%)

The Secure Retirement Institute, which is an arm of Windsor, Connecticut-based LL Global, bases its quarterly annuity sales reports on responses to voluntary insurer surveys. The number of insurers that provided the data included in the preliminary first-quarter sales figures was not immediately available.

Todd Giesing, annuity research director at the Secure Retirement Institute, said in a comment on the results that the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting low interest rates, could push the annuity market in a different direction in the second quarter.

"We expect fixed-rate deferred product sales to improve in the second quarter as consumers seek to protect their investment from market volatility and losses," Giesing said.

— Read After the Catastrophic 1918 Flu Pandemic, Annuities Did Fine, on ThinkAdvisor.

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