{"id":356413,"date":"2025-11-05T02:28:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356413\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T02:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:28:24","slug":"annuity-sales-continue-to-shatter-records-in-q3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356413\/","title":{"rendered":"Annuity Sales Continue to Shatter Records in Q3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Love them or hate them, annuities are on a roll.<\/p>\n<p>While they may not top every advisor\u2019s priority list, the insurance products keep smashing quarterly sales records. US annuity sales hit nearly $120 billion in the third quarter, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.limra.com\/en\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2025\/limra-double-digit-growth-in-registered-annuity-products-drive-another-%24100-billion-quarter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trade group LIMRA<\/a>. That marked the eighth straight quarter above $100 billion, bringing year-to-date totals to $345 billion, up 4% year over year. It\u2019s the highest total ever recorded in a nine-month period, and reflects a growing shift among advisors who are rethinking the old adage that annuities are sold, not bought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re at a place where some advisors use them much more than they should, and others who should use them never do,\u201d said David Blanchett, head of retirement research at PGIM. \u201cYou often need other solutions beyond just a portfolio to solve retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A-Whole-Nnuity World<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Volatility, higher rates and strong equity growth, along with clients\u2019 retirement worries, are creating a favorable backdrop for annuities, particularly registered index-linked products that currently offer \u201cattractive\u201d caps, LIMRA found. Advisors seem to be coming around on annuities:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Half of advisors are increasing client allocations to annuities, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.protectedincome.org\/news\/peak65-retirement-pause\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LIMRA data<\/a> published this summer.<\/li>\n<li>Fee-based annuities have helped reduce conflicts of interests and the sales incentives often associated with traditional commission-based annuities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fundamentally, annuities provide guaranteed income in retirement, often with principal protection against market losses. Still, they come with caveats like potentially high fees, limited liquidity, capped returns and added complexity compared with mutual funds or ETFs. And they\u2019re not all created equal.<\/p>\n<p>Like any investment, due diligence is key, said David Lau, founder of DPL Financial Partners, a commission-free annuity platform. \u201cThere are really crappy mutual funds and terrible ETFs,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are bad products everywhere, but that doesn\u2019t mean you should dismiss them as a category.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take the Good, Take the Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many advisors still view annuities skeptically. \u201cAnnuities aren\u2019t a retirement plan; they\u2019re a sales strategy with a glossy wrapper,\u201d said Mark Stancato, founder of VIP Wealth Advisors. \u201cRecord sales don\u2019t prove investors are getting smarter; they prove fear still sells.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others, however, are taking a more pragmatic stance. \u201cJust like any tool, if you misuse it, you\u2019ll have a bad experience,\u201d said Ashton Lawrence, a CFP at Mariner Wealth Advisors. \u201cYou can have the best spatula for flipping pancakes, but if you try to build a chair with it, you\u2019ll think it\u2019s awful.\u201d Used thoughtfully for managing longevity risk or adding certainty, annuities can play a valuable role in a retirement plan, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love them or hate them, annuities are on a roll. While they may not top every advisor\u2019s priority&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":356414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[41911,64,62729,19544,255,132773,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-356413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-annuities","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-etfs","11":"tag-mutual-funds","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-pgim","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115494735271876318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}