Competition in the U.S. individual annuity market for ordinary retirement savers is still not that fierce.
Gary Bhojwani, the chief executive officer of CEO Financial, gave that assessment Tuesday in a conference call with securities analysts.
CNO held the call to go over earnings for the second quarter, which ended June 30.
Wesley Carmichael, an analyst with Autonomous Research, asked CNO executives about the impact of other financial services companies' new interest in the annuity market.
"There's a tremendous amount of interest and competition in this space," Bhojwani said. "That's not going to end anytime soon."
For asset managers, "the annuity and the insurance business is, frankly, a really cheap source of funds," he said. "So, they're going to continue to be very aggressive here. There's tons of competition. It's not going to slow down."
But "most of those folks are calling on consumers with half a million dollars or $1 million or more," Bhojwani added. "Very few of those folks are calling on the client base that we're calling on, where you've got the average annuity being sold of $150,000 or less."
What it means: Agents and advisors willing and able to offer annuities to consumers with less than $500,000 in assets might find more opportunities than financial professionals courting the millionaires next door.
The earnings: CNO is reporting $92 million in net income for the second quarter on $1.2 billion in revenue, compared with $116 million in net income on $1.1 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2024.
Gary Bhojwani, the chief executive officer of CNO. Courtesy photo
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