Recent annuity product rollouts are putting the spotlight on retirement income strategies as opposed to the how-much-you-can-accumulate focus of yesteryear - and advisors are of two minds about that.

To gain insight into what carriers can do to better meet the needs and preferences of producers, Deloitte surveyed almost 650 U.S.-based life and annuity producers on a variety of issues including the outlook for their business, their level of satisfaction with the support they receive from carriers, and the factors that drive their selection of a carrier when placing new business.

I was a bit surprised when I checked out industry data from the Insurance Information Institute earlier this year that had pegged industry earnings for 2010, because for the first time that I can remember, life insurance became the smallest sector in this business. Annuities came in with nearly half of total industry revenue, health insurance came in at just over a quarter, and life insurance picked up the rest, as just under a quarter.

Second quarter 2011 fixed annuity sales overcame falling interest rates to post their second consecutive quarter-to-quarter increase.

Presentations from various sessions at the SOA Life & Annuity Symposium held in May 2011 in New Orleans, LA.

State insurance regulators are cracking down on stranger-originated annuity (STOA) transactions, and it could affect your annuities business. You will see stricter compliance procedures and could face reduced commissions—regardless of whether you’re knowingly selling annuities as part of a STOA scheme.

These changes will trickle down from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Life Insurance and Annuities Committee, which approved a model bulletin on STOA on March 27. Although state insurance regulators aren’t required to adopt the bulletin, many certainly will distribute the bulletin to carriers operating in their jurisdiction.

Stranger-originated annuity transactions (STATs) have stirred up the ire of professionals in the life settlement and life insurance businesses as well as from the fixed and variable annuity businesses, broker-dealers and more.

The battle over stranger-originated annuities is part of a larger battle over the insurance product resale market, representatives from an insurer group and a life settlement group agree.

Witnesses from the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, and the Life Insurance Settlement Association, Orlando, Fla., appeared Thursday at a STOA hearing organized by the Life Insurance & Annuities Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The credit crisis of 2008, coupled with the ensuing downturn in global markets, now appears to have stabilized. Governments and central banks have employed various measures to restore calm to financial markets. Financial services firms have experienced a rebound in profits, with the partial recovery in financial markets. Insurers, aided by regulatory capital relief measures, have begun the process of rebuilding balance sheets and redefining product priorities.

The Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission's product standard committee voted Feb. 22, 2009 in favor of a standard that would allow annuity carriers to terminate the living benefit of a contract upon a change of the contract’s ownership.

The Wharton Financial Institutions Center offers the first empirical exploration of fixed indexed annuity returns based upon actual
contracts that were sold and actual interest that was credited.

After a decline of 26 percent in the first six months of 2009, variable annuities (VA) were only down 18 percent for the year, as quarterly VA sales slowly improve from the first quarter, according to LIMRA's U.S. Individual Annuities quarterly sales survey.

The broad decline in financial markets worldwide had a significant impact on the insurance industry. Asset-intensive financial products, such as variable annuities with guarantees, have presented various challenges for insurance companies. In 2008, market declines and the ensuing market volatility resulted in losses even for companies with the most sophisticated market risk management programs, as unhedged residual risks took a toll on statutory surplus.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 included some key provisions that addressed for the first time the taxation of combination annuity plans featuring long-term care insurance (LTCI). The rules apply only to nonqualified annuities coupled with tax-qualified long-term care riders.