Life insurance and annuity providers behind on user friendliness: JD Power

Life insurance and annuity distribution partners achieved high scores in overall customer satisfaction by JD Power's Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study, though user friendliness was identified as a significant area with opportunity for improvement. On a 1,000-point scale, life insurance distribution partners received a very positive rating of 743 points, and annuity distribution partners received a score of 742.

"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," said Craig Martin, executive director, global insurance intelligence at JD Power, in the press release. "While many life insurance and annuity brands have built strong reputations and deliver reliable service to financial professionals and their clients, one area for improvement is user friendliness. Many providers come up short on self-service capabilities and have processes that can be time-consuming and seem antiquated."

JD Power's 2026 study analyzed the experiences of financial, insurance and banking professionals who sell products for life and annuity distribution companies, based on 2,860 evaluations of life insurance distribution partners and 3,010 evaluations of annuity distribution partners and was fielded from October to December 2025. 

In overall customer satisfaction with life insurance distribution partners, Pacific Life ranked the highest, followed by Guardian Life and Allianz. Corebridge Financial placed the highest in overall customer satisfaction with annuity distribution partners, followed by Security Benefit and Symetra. 

The research reveals that financial professionals consistently identify having a partner who is easy to work with as one of their top priorities, but also  40% say their life insurance or annuity partners are very easy to work with. 

Brand loyalty is higher for organizations with partners who say they are easy to work with, and JD Power identifies that self-service capabilities and digital engagement are a significant part of user friendliness and customer satisfaction. Twenty percent of financial professionals say they believe their annuity providers should offer better self-service capabilities, and 31% say that the balance between live support and self-service capabilities is less than ideal. 

While most, 71%, of professionals gave an excellent rating to their life insurance or annuity distribution partners' portal, 29% responded that their partners' portal is not as efficient and overall satisfaction scores dropped over 200 points, according to the study.