Jackson Life hit record sales, earnings in ’09

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. reported record sales and earnings in 2009, as its fixed and variable annuities flew off the shelves.
The insurer’s sales and deposits rose 8% to a record $15.2 billion last year. The firm also reported record net income of $670 million, compared with a $1 billion net loss in 2008.
Variable annuity sales hit $10.0 billion in 2009, compared with $6.5 billion the previous year.
“There was repricing in the industry that impacted firms, and many firms in the variable annuity industry refocused; some de-emphasized the business due to individual reasons,” explained Clifford Jack, chief distribution officer at Jackson.
He added that while the carrier had priced its variable annuity benefits higher than its peers, it didn’t having to make the same drastic adjustments its competitors made to variable annuity living benefits after the market downturn.
Fixed-index annuity sales also increased, to $2.2 billion, compared with $928 million in 2008. However, Mr. Jack said Jackson tightened the reins on fixed-deferred-annuity sales last year to preserve capital; sales were $1.6 billion last year, down from $3.2 billion in 2008.
Mr. Jack explained there are two possible areas for product development in the future: The concept of using annuities in qualified plans and the use of stand-alone living benefits in conjunction with asset management products. “We prefer to analyze [those developments] right now and we’ll decide to do something if they have traction,” he said.
Mr. Jack said, however, that since these two concepts haven’t taken off yet, the company is instead pursuing casual and non-annuity producers for more selling opportunities. He said that will require a “simplification of the message, and not the product.”
Jackson’s other units, Curian Capital and National Planning Holdings Inc., also had a strong 2009. Curian, the company’s separately managed accounts subsidiary, racked up more than $1.2 billion in deposits last year, up from about $1.1 billion in 2008. In the fourth quarter, deposits hit a record high of $464 million, up 203% from the year earlier.
National Planning Holdings Inc., Jackson’s independent broker-dealer network, posted 2009 sales of $611 million, up from $608 million the year earlier. However, net income fell to $3 million from $9 million. Gross product sales declined to $14.1 billion, from $14.6 billion the previous year.
National Planning, however, last year expanded its number of registered reps to 3,478, from 3,165 at the end of 2008.
“Few of these reps are new to the business, and most of them are leaving other brokerage firms — be they wirehouses, indie broker-dealers or captives in some format,” Mr. Jack said.