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By 
May 06, 2019 at 03:47 AM
The trickle of earnings releases has turned into a torrent.
(Related: We Can Handle Medicare for All: Aflac)
Here’s a look at some of the announcements that have poured out in the past week.
Reinsurance
Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (Stock symbol: RGA)
RGA is reporting $170 million in net income for the first quarter on $3.4 billion in revenue, up from $100 million in net income on $3.2 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
At the company’s U.S. and Latin America unit, group reinsurance business did well, but executives said the individual life unit received more large claims.
Life and Annuity
Prudential Financial Inc. (Stock symbol: PRU)
Prudential is reporting $937 million in net income for the first quarter on $14 billion in revenue, compared with $1.4 billion in net income on $13 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
In financial reports, Prudential now describes its U.S. life and annuity units as being part of its “U.S. Financial Wellness business.”
The individual annuity unit is reporting $472 million in adjusted operating income before income taxes for the latest quarter on $1.24 billion in revenue, compared with $519 million in operating income on $1.25 billion in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
Sales of variable annuities increased to $2 billion, from $1.7 billion.
Sales of fixed annuities increased to $298 million, from $30 million.
Annuity sales through insurance agents increased to $680 million, from $525 million.
Annuity sales through independent financial planners increased to $1 billion, from $758 million.
The individual life unit is reporting $105 million in adjusted operating income before income taxes for the latest quarter on $1.5 billion in revenue, compared with $36 million in operating income on $1.4 billion in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
Sales of individual life increased to $163 million, from $125 million.
Sales of term life fell to $51 million, from $49 million.
Sales of variable life increased to $61 million, from $29 million.
Lincoln National Corp. (Stock symbol: LNC)
Lincoln National, which operates under the name Lincoln Financial, is reporting $252 million in net income for the first quarter on $4 billion in revenue, compared with $367 million in net income on $3.6 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
Spending on deferrable commissions increased to $132 million, from $105 million.
Spending on non-deferrable commissions fell to $136 million, from $139 million.
The annuities unit is reporting $250 million in income, down from $267 million a year earlier, but total annuity deposits increased 39% over that period, to $3.5 billion.
The company’s annuities unit attracted $492 million in net flows in the latest quarter. In the first quarter of 2018, the annuities unit experienced $606 million in net outflows.
Lincoln Financial’s life unit reported $157 million in operating income, up 9% from the total for the year-earlier quarter.
Life insurance sales increased 10%, to $191 million.
The company also sells disability insurance and other employee benefits.
Dennis Glass, Lincoln Financial’s president, talked about the state of the benefits market during a conference call the company held to go over its earnings release with securities analysts.
“We think the pricing in both employee-paid and voluntary is rational,” Glass said. “We don’t see any irrational pricing.”
Randal Freitag, the head of Lincoln Financial’s individual life business, said the company has felt somewhat underrepresented in the market for indexed universal life (IUL). He said the company added IUL products in February in an effort to improve its position in the IUL market.
American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (Stock symbol: AEL)
American Equity Life is reporting a net loss of $30 million for the first quarter on $1 billion in revenue, compared with $141 million in net income on $119 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
The main reason for the increase in revenue is a change in the fair value of derivatives.
Indexed annuity deposits increased to $1.2 billion, from $994 million.
Deposits for fixed-rate annuities with an annual rate re-set feature fell to $127 million, from $273 million.
Deposits for annuities with multi-year rate guarantees increased to $26 million, from $10 million.
Deposits for single-premium immediate annuities fell to $2.1 million, from $11 million.
John Matovina, American Equity Life’s chief executive officer, said in a statement about the results that the market in every distribution channel remains challenging. “However, we remain pleased with our competitive positioning,” he said.
American Equity Life lowered participation rates on S&P 500 annual point-to-point strategies in mid-April, because of the decline in available investment yields, but a number of major competitors made similar cuts, and business activity remains strong, Matovina said.
FBL Financial Group Inc. (Stock symbol: FFG)
FBL is reporting $34 million in net income for the first quarter on $204 million in revenue, up from $24 million in net income on $182 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
At the annuity unit, commissions, net of deferrals, increased to $514 million, from $504 million.
James Brannen, the company’s chief, said that FBL sales of life insurance have been strong, but that competition from bank certificates of deposit has hurt sales of the company’s indexed annuities.
Unless conditions change, “higher annuity sales will be a challenge, as we intend to maintain our pricing discipline,” Brannen said.
FBL has 1,830 exclusive agents and agency managers, and that’s up a bit from a year ago, Brannen said.
“The environment remains challenging for recruiting and retaining exclusive agents,” Brannen said.
Keeping agents who are in their second through fourth year is especially difficult, he said.
