Distributors Expect Life Sales to Grow Faster Than Annuity Sales
Participants in a LIMRA-NAILBA survey think demand for estate and trust services will soar.
Demand for estate and trust services could soar over the next three years.
When a survey team asked life, health and annuity distributors to rate the growth prospects of eight life-and-health-related sectors, 26% listed estate and trust services as the leader.
Retirement income planning came second and was named the top near-term growth prospect by 22% of the participants, according to the survey report.
LIMRA and NAILBA, a Finseca community, conducted the survey from September 2023 through November 2023.
What it means: Aging clients may need less help with income planning in the coming years and more help with funeral planning, estate planning and charitable gift planning.
LIMRA and NAILBA: LIMRA is a financial services research consortium that’s part of LL Global.
NAILBA — the group formerly known as the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies — represents independent life and annuity distributors. It become part of Finseca in 2022.
The survey: LIMRA and NAILBA have been conducting distributor surveys for the past three years. Their survey sample includes representatives from brokerage general agencies and independent marketing organizations.
A BGA is a firm that distributes insurance products and provides support services for insurance agents.
A typical IMO is bigger than a typical BGA and may serve as an umbrella organization for many different BGAs.
Last year: When the participants were surveyed, about 68% said sales were higher in 2023 than in 2022, and only 15% said sales were lower.
Thanks to the increase in annuity crediting rates and the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of participants’ sales coming from life insurance fell to 58%, from 67% in 2021, and the percentage coming from annuities increased to 23%, from 19%.
Hot products: In addition to asking about growth prospects for services, the survey team asked about growth prospects for specific products.
About 45% named life insurance as the product with the top three-year outlook and 26% named annuities. Only 3% thought disability insurance would be the growth leader.
Credit: Bram Janssens/Thinkstock