Some of the companies that write your clients' annuities are a little harder to track than others.
A new market share report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners sheds some light on the operations of the nonpublic issuers.
The nonpublic companies include policyholder-owned mutual, insurers owned by nonprofit fraternal organizations and insurers owned by individuals, families or privately held for-profit companies.
The NAIC report shows that the top 10 nonpublic issuers increased total premium revenue from all individual annuities in force to $121 billion in 2024, up 18% from the 2023 total.
That compares with an increase of 24%, to $189 billion, for the 10 biggest public individual annuity issuers.
For a look at the 10 biggest non-public individual annuity issuers, see the gallery above.
What it means: Securities analysts have been asking the executives of the publicly traded issuers whether they see signs of irrational pricing in the individual market.
One takeaway from the NAIC's market share report may be that the public companies don't seem to be straining harder than nonpublic competitors to please investors by increasing market share.
Public companies vs. nonpublic companies: Companies that sell stock to the public post earnings reports on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's public filing system every three months.
They usually stream conference calls with securities analysts live on the web.
The nonpublic issuers are not necessarily hiding in the corner. The category includes well-known companies like MassMutual, New York Life and Nationwide, which may, at times, either on their own or through affiliates, create or invest in publicly traded companies, issue public bonds and run advertising campaigns that get plenty of attention.
They may also operate as highly visible leaders in markets for real estate, private equity and private capital.
All of the nonpublic companies send quarterly and annual financial statements to state insurance regulators, and many post their financial statements on their websites. But some post only their annual statements and wish the general public would not look at the quarterly statements. Some don't post their financial statements on the public web.
Financial professionals typically get results summaries from many sources, but getting the full filings might take some legwork, and interpreting the filings may be disorienting even for financial professionals who are used to mutual funds filings and public companies' Form 10-K filings.
The NAIC report: The NAIC produces annual insurance company market share reports to help state insurance regulators keep tabs on insurance markets, understand who the major players are and assess the level of competition in each market.
The market share report lists results for a total of 125 issuers.
Annuity premium revenue at all issuers in the report increased 21% between 2023 and 2024, to $348 billion.
Some of the other life insurance and annuity articles we publish focus on sales.
The NAIC's market share reports highlight "direct written premium," or premium revenue before the effects of reinsurance arrangements that may push a portion of the premium payments elsewhere. Big changes in direct written premium may reflect the impact of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, program launches and other long-term issuer strategy moves.
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