Prudential is new No. 1 seller of annuities

Prudential Financial Inc. has taken the crown as the biggest seller of variable annuities and overall individual annuities in the U.S. through the first half of this year, according to data released today by LIMRA. Prudential sold $10.2 billion in variable annuities and $10.9 billion in overall individual annuities this year through June. The carrier toppled MetLife Inc., whose first-half sales over individual annuities slipped to $9.8 billion from $13.3 billion in the first half last year. The company has sold $8.51 in variable annuities so far this year. Over the course of the last year, the list of the top five individual annuity sellers has shifted. Back in the second quarter of 2009, New York Life Insurance Co., TIAA-CREF, Prudential and Lincoln Financial Group rounded out the top five. Some new names have hit the top of the individual annuity sellers’ charts since then, as Jackson National Life Insurance Co. and AIG Cos. are in third and fifth place, respectively. MetLife placed second, while TIAA-CREF finished fourth. The shift among sales leaders can be tied to the adjustments the carriers made to their products, noted Kevin Loffredi, senior vice president at Advanced Sales & Marketing Corp., the annuity research organization. For instance, John Hancock Financial Services and ING both pulled back sharply on living benefits tied to their variable annuities. Both released simplified variable annuities earlier this year. As a result, ING slid from sixth place to tenth place among annuity providers, and John Hancock from fifth to fifteenth. “Everyone who’s dropped their benefits is losing billions of dollars [in annuity sales],” said Mr. Loffredi. “That money has to go somewhere, so it’ll go to those insurers’ nearest neighbors.”