The 10 Top Life and Annuity Stories of 2022

9. The Great Restructuring

Five years ago, Sean Dargan, a securities analyst, predicted that low interest rates and new accounting rules would lead to a dramatic realignment of the U.S. life insurance industry. That process continued this year, when AIG turned its life and retirement business into a separate company, Corebridge Financial, through an IPO.

(Image: NYSE)

8. The Private Equity Conundrum

Investment firms, including many based in Bermuda, have been acquiring control over many life and annuity issuers. Regulators continued to talk about the topic this year and gather information but made no major changes.

Hamilton, Bermuda. (Image: Andrew F. Kazmierski/Shutterstock))

7. Annuity Sales Standards

The U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continued to clash over whether annuity sellers should abide by a best interest standard, which might allow volume-based annuity commissions, or by a fiduciary standard, which likely would ban use of traditional sales commission arrangements.

(Image: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

6. Inflation Reduction Act

This new law includes provisions that could increase life and annuity issuers' income tax bills, reduce public insurers' share buybacks, and increase older clients' asset levels by holding down Medicare prescription drug costs.

(Image: Adobe Stock)

5. Secure 2.0 Plus

President Jose Biden signed H.R. 2617, which included the Secure 2.0 bill and a separate registered index-linked annuity registration process section, Thursday.

The RILA product registration section could increase the number of RILA products on the market, by easing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission product registration red tape.

The Secure 2.0 sections could boost sales of income annuities, by clearing up income annuity regulatory problems, and give sales of long-term care insurance a small bump, by letting people use some retirement plan money to pay LTCI premiums without having to pay early withdrawal penalties.

(Image: Shutterstock)

4. Interest Rates

Higher rates helped life insurers by increasing what they earn on newly invested money. One open question is whether the rapid 2022 rate increases also hurt life and annuity issuers, and, if so, how badly.

(Image: Adobe Stock)

3. The COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic spiked hard in January, slowed, surged in the summer, and then slowed again. The total excess count continued to be about 10% higher than the pre-pandemic average.

(Image: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

2. The Growing Oldest-Old Population

The percentage of Americans ages 75 and older is growing rapidly, and agents and advisors are scouring the web for ideas about how to pay for care for those who can no longer live without help on their own.

(Image: U.S. Census Bureau)

1. The Galleri Multi-Cancer Screening Test

Grail, the company developing this product, began to persuade health insurers to cover it. The test could change life insurance underwriting and income planning, by giving clients important information about how likely they are to have cancer.

(Image: PopTika/Adobe Stock)