Annuity Market News articles from December 2004

Annuity Market News archives from December 2004

At Deadline.(Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefits, retirement income strategies)
December 1, 2004... Withdrawals Most Baffling Of All Annuity Features Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefits may be popular sellers, but they are all too often misunderstood by clients, columnist Humberto Cruz wrote recently. He called the GMWB the "most...

Carriers Seek to Optimize Profitability.(pricing of annuities, insurance industry)
December 1, 2004... NEW YORK - Even as business is bouncing back for variable annuity manufacturers, profit expectations and the process of pricing annuities are different today than they were six years ago. The median pricing target for variable annuities was 15%...

Insurers Face up to Fair Value Accounting.(International Accounting Standards Board)
December 1, 2004... Fair value accounting could change the way insurance companies structure their products. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) over the next three to five years will require...

Insurance Commissioners Eye Uniform Rules: Seek to Strengthen Regulations in Light of Recent Charges.(National Association of Insurance Commissioners, regulations of insurance industry)
December 1, 2004... The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is evaluating the adequacy of current state laws and regulations. Although this evaluation applies to commercial insurance lines of business, annuity rules also are under review. ...

First Immediate Index Annuity Hits Market.(Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America)
December 1, 2004... Allianz Life of America of Minneapolis has introduced the first immediate index annuity, the InCommandDex, which is unusual, as well, because it functions as both an immediate and deferred annuity at the same time. Like the newer immediate...

People Moves.
December 1, 2004... AXA Distributors Recruits Mullery as Sales Director James Mullery has been named SVP of AXA Financial and chief sales officer of subsidiary AXA Distributors. He is in charge of annuity and mutual funds sales in the broker/dealer,...

Year in Review Sales Are Up - And the Sky is Falling!(American insurance industry)
December 1, 2004... Last year, I described 2003 as "another year that the annuity industry would prefer to forget." This year, the industry has two options in reflecting upon 2004: Chicken Little or the ostrich with its head stuck in the sand. Are you a...

Rollover Assets to IRA Annuities Surge.(Individual Retirement Annuity, trends of annuities)
December 1, 2004... Money from 401(k) rollovers invested in annuities within IRA plans has increased 400% over the last four years. According to a study by the Spectrem Group of Chicago, some 10 million people rolled over their 401(k) accounts from May 2003 to...