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November 14, 2011 at 08:58 AM
Third-quarter numbers are in and several insurance carriers have booked solid sales in the annuity space, particularly in the variable annuity category. Sales of fixed annuities were not as robust.
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Minneapolis, saw its variable annuity (VA) sales rise to $2.9 billion, a year-to-date upswing of 26 percent from the $2.3 billion sold through the third quarter of 2010. Meanwhile, through the third quarter, fixed index annuity premiums came in at $4.9 billion, a notch below the $5 billion sold in the first nine months of 2010. Overall, Allianz posted premium sales of $8.3 billion between January and September, a 7 percent jump from the $7.8 billion sold during the same period last year.
Boosted by its VA sales, Jackson National Life Insurance Co., Lansing, Mich., netted $17.9 billion in total sales and deposits during the first nine months of 2011, which translates to a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2010. Much of that growth was booked in the VA category, where sales rose 31 percent to $13.7 billion.
However, when viewed on a quarter-over-quarter basis, VA sales at Jackson showed some instability. In Q3, VA sales reached $4.2 billion, up 15 percent over the same quarter in 2010 but down 15 percent from the second quarter of 2011. The company attributes that dip to market volatility that “reduced customer demand for equity-based products.”
