Prudential Financial Inc. and American International Group Inc. contributed to the United States’ largest variable annuity sales increase since 2007. According to Bloomberg’s “Variable-Annuity Sales Rise 11% as Prudential, AIG Post Gains” by Inyoung Hwang, the $35.5 billion in sales was an increase of 11% for the second quarter of this year. Prudential sold $5.3 billion of variable annuities to capture the top spot in sales. This was a huge increase from their $3.38 billion in sales during the second quarter of last year. Limra International believes that the market is showing signs of recovery since most of the top 20 companies had growth in their variable annuity sales.
After AIG was helped by the federal government, they increased their variable annuity sales 45% from $1.09 billion to $1.58 billion. AIG was able to increase their operating profit by 17% after the profit from their U.S life insurance businesses quadrupled from last year’s profits. The second highest sales of $4.5 billion belongs to MetLife Inc., although they experienced a very small decline from the same period last year. Annuity rates and other factors contributing to the variable annuity sales affected the top companies differently. The third and fourth place sellers were TIAA-CREF and Jackson National Life. The industry is hopeful that this second quarter increase will continue into the future.
