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Why should you buy a Fixed Index Annuity?
Many investors approaching retirement think they have no real need for annuities. However the lifetime-income guarantees offered by these insurance-company products can add security to portfolios which are mostly composed of stock and bond mutual funds. A market downturn that hits before or at the start of retirement can leave even conservative investors with far [...]
Fixed Index Annuity Sales Close 2010 On a High Note
Fixed indexed annuity sales shook off a lackluster to start to the year to finish 2010 with some much-needed momentum, according to Beacon Research’s latest “Fixed Annuity Premium Study” released this week. Total annual indexed annuity sales surged 6% this year to a lot more than $31.4 billion while income annuity sales improved 2% to [...]
Do Variable Annuity GLWBs Still Work?
Over the past decade, variable annuities have increasingly been sold based on the “living benefit” (otherwise known as the Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit). The living benefit is a series of benefit configurations that allows investors to participate in the equity markets, while simultaneously acting as an option guarantee for their account performance—in their income account [...]
Fixed Index Annuities Set Sales Record for 2nd year in a row
Indexed annuities had record sales for a second consecutive year, reaching $32.1 billion, according to LIMRA’s analysis of sales. The increase was 7% more than 2009 results, according to the analysis, which tracks 96% of annuity sellers’ activities. In the fourth quarter of last year, indexed-annuity sales improved 17% compared to fourth quarter of 2009, [...]
Fixed Index Annuities Ready for 2011 Comeback
Annuities sold through banks hit a rough patch in the last year, but 2011 looks brighter as interest rates start to rise and also the Dow Jones Industrial Average is constantly on the up and up. On Wednesday the Kehrer-Jackson Monthly Bank Annuity Sales Survey was released revealing the first half of 2010 and it [...]
Guaranteed Income for Life
Retirees who watched in horror as their account balances plunged along with the stock market now face a new challenge: how to generate enough income to pay their bills. A widely accepted rule of thumb suggests that if you hold initial withdrawals to 4% of your nest egg during the first year of retirement and [...]
Genworth bows out of variable annuity business
The insurer said on Wednesday it will cease sales of retail and group variable annuities, and will also suspend sales of its linked benefit product — a combination annuity product with long-term care features. Current contract holders won’t be affected by the change. “With this decision, we have taken an additional step in advancing our [...]
Genworth Drops Variable Annuities
Genworth Financial Inc. says it is discontinuing new sales of retail variable annuities and group variable annuities. Genworth, Richmond, Va. (NYSE: GNW), also is suspending sales of combination annuities linked to long term care insurance “until that market develops further,” the company says. Genworth will continue to sell linked benefit products that combine life insurance [...]
Genworth Ends Variable-Annuity Sales
Genworth Financial Inc., the mortgage guarantor and life insurer, is ending sales of new retail and group variable annuities. Genworth, based in Richmond, Virginia, will also discontinue a product that combines annuities and long-term-care insurance, according to a statement posted today on the company’s website. The insurer said it will take a pretax charge of [...]
