Wink to Report Indexed Product Sales by Index

Here’s one sign of how big of a deal investment indexes now are in the world of U.S. life insurance and annuity products: Wink Inc. says it will be offering an index-based sales report.

(Related: Annuity Index War May Reveal a Data Gap)

The Des Moines, Iowa-based company has been publishing life and annuity product sales data since 1997.

In recent years, consumer groups, policymakers and some financial professionals have complained about the difficulty of getting complete, detailed, standardized information for some indexes.

Critics have argued that, in some cases, issuers might be using consumers’ difficulties with understanding and comparing indexes to avoid having to include the actual or potential impact of the 2007-2009 Great Recession in illustrations of past index performance.