Bank Annuity Sales Rise In December

Thanks largely to increased demand for variable annuities, bank sales of annuities in December 2006 were up 7% over the total from a year earlier, according to a survey by Kehrer-LIMRA.

Financial institutions sold $3.2 billion of annuities in December 2006, up from $3 billion in December 2005, reports Kehrer-LIMRA, a unit of LIMRA International, Windsor, Conn. The monthly survey is based on a national sample of banks with at least $4 billion in assets.

“Variable annuities have outsold fixed annuities in banks in 10 of the last 12 months,” said Kenneth Kehrer, the head of Kehrer-LIMRA.