There is some light amidst a darkening economy, reports
The Beacon Research Fixed Annuity Premium Study notes that fourth-quarter fixed-annuities sales hit a six-year record for the third-consecutive quarter, rising to $34.1 billion, up 90% from a year earlier.
During the fourth quarter, book-value annuities, which pay a declared rate of interest for a given period, raked in the most money, with $17.1 billion in sales, more than double what they were a year earlier, according to Beacon’s Darla Mercado. Sales of market-value-adjusted annuities, which allow the investor to fix a time period and interest rate, were $7.4 billion, three-and-one-half times higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, index annuities climbed 12% to $7.2 billion, and immediate annuities sales were $2.4 billion, up 22% from the year-earlier period.
The top-selling product during the fourth quarter was MetLife Investors’ Fixed Annuity FA, a market-value product, followed by MetLife’s Target Maturity market-value annuity. Aviva-American Investors Life came in third with its Income Select Bonus index annuity.