U.S. sales of individual annuities increased 6.4% between the second quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, to $115 billion, according to new issuer survey data from Wink.
Analysts at Wink and other annuity sales tracking organizations predicted earlier in the year that sales growth might look weak this year because strong 2024 growth would make comparisons look soft.
For retirement savers who wanted a high level of growth, registered index-linked annuity contracts, or RILA contracts, were the top choice.
Sales of RILA contracts, which can tie crediting rates to the performance of the S&P 500 stock index or other investment indexes, increased 16% year over year, to $18 billion.
RILA sales keep growing so fast partly because new issuers are still entering the RILA market, Sheryl Moore, Wink's CEO, said in a commentary on the second-quarter results.
For retirement sales who wanted rate stability, multi-year guaranteed annuity contracts were the clear winner.
MYGA contract sales increased 11%, year over year, to $45 billion.
"The banks and broker-dealers, in particular, are leading with MYGAs," Moore said.
Market-linked products: Total sales of market-linked annuities increased 8.4%, year over year, to $34 billion, but sales of traditional variable annuities were not as strong as sales of RILA contracts.
Traditional variable annuity sales rose just 0.4%, to $15 billion.
Fixed annuities: Although total sales of fixed annuities increased 5.9%, to $78 billion, MYGA contracts were responsible for all of that growth.
Sales of fixed indexed annuities, which are similar to RILAs in some ways but protect the purchasers' contributions against market-related losses, fell 0.2%, to $32 billion.
Sales of fixed annuities with one-year rate guarantees fell 9.3%, to $460 million.
What it means: Growth in the U.S. individual annuity market is uneven right now. Sales for some products are rising rapidly, and sales for other, somewhat similar products are shrinking.
Broker-dealers increased their share of individual annuity sales to 40% in the second quarter, from 38% in the year-earlier quarter, while independent agents' share fell to 24%, from 26%, according to Wink data.
The new sales patterns could reflect differences in what broker-dealers and independent agents prefer to sell.
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