Industry-wide annuity sales are up 13.1 percent year over year with sales during the first quarter reaching $56.1 billion. When compared with the first quarter of 2013, sales totaled $49.6 billion, according to data reported by Beacon Research and Morningstar, Inc. published in a press release by the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI).
"Combined annuity sales across the marketplace are well above the pace set in 2013," said Cathy Weatherford, IRI President and CEO. "This surge was supported by continued strong sales of fixed annuity products. Sales of all types of fixed annuities soared well above first-quarter 2013 levels, achieving year-over year sales growth ranging, depending on the product, from 38 percent to nearly 155 percent."
IRI reported that year-over-year sales growth was supported by continued high levels of fixed annuity sales, which totaled $22.6 billion during the first quarter and represent a 50.7 percent increase from nearly $15 billion in the first-quarter of 2013. However, sales are down just 4.1 percent from $23.5 billion in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, variable annuity total sales came in at $33.5 billion in the first quarter, down 3.2 percent compared with first-quarter 2013 total sales of $34.6 billion, and down 6.4 percent from $35.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the IRI report.
