According to Karen Mracek’s article in the Des Moines Register, “Aviva’s sales (were) down in ’09; but business is picking up.” Aviva USA is headquartered in Des Moines and their parent company Aviva is based in London. While the company showed an overall sales decline of 17% in 2009, their sales in the fourth quarter were up 14%, showing that they are indeed on the rise.
Aviva planned to reduce it’s annuity business after many companies were hit hard with losses in variable annuities during the most recent economic downturn. However, the demand for their annuities was much greater than they had anticipated so they worked on updating their company goals. While Aviva’s annuity sales declined 27% for the year, they showed a 44% increase in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The company believes that its customers have faith in Aviva as one of the stronger forces in the market and that is why they chose to do their annuity business with Aviva. Aviva’s life insurance sales increased both for the year and dramatically in the fourth quarter. They remain focused on profitably growing their business in annuities and other insurance products throughout 2010.
