According to Symetra’s press release, “Symetra Financial Reports Second Quarter 2011 Results,” the company had a significant year over year quarterly increase. Their second quarter net income of $59.4 million was a large increase over the second quarter of 2010’s $35.8 million. Their adjusted operating income of $49.8 million was also an increase over last year’s $41.5 million adjusted operating income. Group loss ratio increased in both the first and second quarter of this year. The account values for Symetra’s deferred annuities increased to $10.9 billion. Income annuities showed improvement based on mortality gains, while life earnings went down due to higher administrative costs and a lower return on assets. Symetra’s investment portfolio had net gains of $14.1 million after a loss in the second quarter of last year.
Symetra has been working on a lot of new products this year as well. The Symetra Edge Pro fixed equity indexed annuity is their updated SPL product. Symetra’s ‘Grow and Diversify’ strategy has been increasing the company’s assets based on expansion of their distribution channels and bringing new registered investments to the forefront. Variable annuities with lower costs because they don’t have living benefit guarantees are in increasing demand right now. Variable and fixed deferred annuities had an increase in adjusted operating income and set records in both total account value and fixed account value. Some of the company’s variable and fixed annuities numbers were down, based on lower annuity rates and interest rates in general right now. Single premium immediate annuities had a strong adjusted operating income lead by $4.9 million in mortality gains. Overall, Symetra is pleased with their second quarter results and is staying strong through difficult financial times.
