Hi. My name is Ryan Hinchey. I am a variable annuity consultant. Annuities are complicated. I help people make sense of them.
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The VA industry is becoming increasingly top heavy. As discussed in this WSJ article, the top 4 variable annuity players now make up 48% of the 2010 industry sales!
Consumers would be best served with healthy competition and a wider dispersion of market share. If nothing else, advisors should be thinking about not putting all their consumers’ eggs in one basket, but rather spread their annuity investment among several companies - including a mutual company (which traditionally have the highest ratings in terms of financial strength).
I also think that more work needs to be done in fitting the annuity with the purchaser. Not every investor needs the richer (& more expensive) features if they are not going to use them. But I have a bad feeling that commissions are driving these decisions more than anything else.
Fingers crossed on a more competitive annuity landscape in Q4 & 2011.
Variable annuity sales finally showed meaningful signs of improvement in Q2. Looks like consumer confidence in VA’s are on the rise. Source: Limra
