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Companies that create and support life insurance and annuity products are generally doing a good job of delivering on key relationship needs for financial professionals, with most receiving high satisfaction marks, according to a study by J.D. Power, released Thursday.
At the same time, the study found, many providers still have opportunities to improve the level of user-friendly service they offer financial professionals.
"The two most valuable commodities of financial professionals are their time and reputations, so when it comes to working with life insurance and annuity partners, they place an enormously high value on trust and ease of interaction," Craig Martin, executive director for global insurance intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement.
Many providers, Martin noted, fall short on self-service capabilities, with processes that can be time-consuming and seem antiquated.
J.D. Power's study was based on 2,860 evaluations of life insurance distribution partners and 3,010 evaluations of annuity distribution partners fielded in the fourth quarter.
Key Study Findings
The average overall satisfaction score for life insurance distribution partners is 743 (on a 1,000-point scale), and for annuity distribution partners 742.
These compare with overall scores of 664 for independent insurance agent satisfaction with personal lines insurers and 629 for independent financial advisor satisfaction with wealth management firms — both scores based on J.D. Power satisfaction studies conducted in 2025.
Financial professionals consistently cited having a partner that is easy to work with as one of their top priorities. Brand loyalty rates are 78% among life insurance partners who said their partners are very easy to work with, and 71% among annuity partners who said this.
Still, only 40% of financial professionals said their life insurance and annuity partners are very easy to work with.
Thirty-one percent of financial professionals reported that the balance between self-service and live support required to work with their life insurance and annuity partners is suboptimal, with 20% of professionals suggesting that their annuity providers need to provide better self-service capabilities.
The study found that most life insurance and annuity partners offer well-designed digital portals. Seventy-one percent of financial professionals rated their life insurance and annuity partners' portal experiences as excellent.
For the 29% who said their provider portals come up short, average overall satisfaction scores decline by more than 200 points.
Here's how financial advisors, insurance brokers and bankers ranked major annuity distributors:
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