We would love to hear from you. Click on the ‘Contact Us’ link to the right and choose your favorite way to reach-out!

wscdsdc

media/speaking contact

Jamie Johnson

business contact

Victoria Peterson

Contact Us

855.ask.wink

Close [x]
pattern

Industry News

Categories

  • Industry Articles (21,155)
  • Industry Conferences (2)
  • Industry Job Openings (35)
  • Moore on the Market (414)
  • Negative Media (144)
  • Positive Media (73)
  • Sheryl's Articles (800)
  • Wink's Articles (353)
  • Wink's Inside Story (274)
  • Wink's Press Releases (123)
  • Blog Archives

  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • May 2008
  • February 2008
  • August 2006
  • As MetLife rightsizes, other players grow in US annuities

    August 18, 2014 by Thomas Mason

    While MetLife Inc. has made no secret of its efforts to scale back its exposure to the U.S. annuity market, the latest statutory data available shows a particularly steep drop in business for the life insurer. MetLife ranked seventh in the first quarter of 2014, after being in the top spot for the first quarters of 2013 and 2012.

    The insurer is rightsizing its annuity business in an effort to find the right amount of risk it wants to assume, as Steven Kandarian, MetLife’s chairman, president and CEO, explained during an investor day held June 10. But he was also quick to assure listeners that the company is committed to the line. “I want to make sure that everyone understands that we are not moving away from the annuity business,” Kandarian said, according to a transcript. Starting in 2015, MetLife expects the business will start to grow again.

    Steven KandarianSales of variable annuities at MetLife more than halved from 2011 to 2013, falling from $28.4 billion in 2011 to $10.6 billion in 2013, according to the slides prepared for the investor day. A recent analysis from SNL illustrated this drop as well, with MetLife sliding from a third-place ranking among U.S. variable annuity writers in 2012 to an eighth-place ranking in 2013.

    At the same time, Jackson National Life Insurance Co. emerged as the front-runner in the U.S. annuities in the first quarter. The insurer, which is owned by London-based Prudential Plc, has had particular success with its Elite Access annuities. Overall variable annuity sales totaled $6.4 billion in the first quarter, with Elite Access accounting for about 17.2% of that total, as Tidjane Thiam, CEO of Prudential Plc, said during a May 8 investor call, according to a transcript. Per the website for Elite Access, the annuity offers over 100 investment strategies, including traditional investments, alternative investments and tactically managed strategies.

     Tidjane Thiam

    “We are experiencing very favorable conditions to write variable annuity business,” said Thiam. Key to this favorable environment has been the product and pricing initiatives that the company took in 2014, as well as higher long-term interest rates. But while Jackson National has been keen to grow, it has retained a “value over volume focus,” the CEO said, with new business profit in the U.S. rising by 67%, versus 39% growth in sales volume.

    U.S.-based Prudential Financial Inc., meanwhile, saw a year-over-year decline in the first quarter. In other quarters, Prudential’s results have been skewed by large pension risk transfer transactions, which served to boost premiums by an inordinate amount. But this occurred in the fourth quarter of 2012, and therefore would not be an issue for the first-quarter numbers.

    Variable annuities in particular have declined sharply for Prudential, as noted in SNL’s 2013 rankings (the variable annuity rankings should not have been skewed by the pension risk transactions, since those deals were accounted for as fixed annuities). Prudential explained the factors at work in a June 9 presentation. Whereas Prudential had been increasing sales from 2009 to 2012 amid a rising market, it pulled back in 2013 in an effort to adapt products to the current environment and to diversify risk. The slides showed gross sales rising from $16.3 billion in 2009 to $20.0 billion in 2012 then falling to $11.5 billion in 2013.

    Methodology: The annuity rankings reflect SNL groups, which reflect the consolidation of entities within SNL-defined corporate structures, and unaffiliated single companies. These groups were adjusted to exclude certain entities in two instances: MetLife and Aflac Inc. For these groups, SNL excluded MetLife’s American Life Insurance Co. (DE) and Aflac’s American Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus, since these units each write a significant amount of non-U.S. business.

    Research and consulting company LIMRA also publishes data on new annuity sales. SNL’s analysis differs, however, in that it uses total annuity considerations, which reflect new business and the persistency of existing business in the form of renewal annuity considerations.

    Thomas Mason is a senior analyst with Charlottesville, Va.-based SNL Financial. This article appeared on the SNL Financial website.

    Originally Posted at insurance & Financial Advisor on August 18, 2014 by Thomas Mason.

    Categories: Industry Articles
    currency