Annuity insurers expect registered investment advisors to become the industry’s most-watched opportunity within three years, though they are placing independent broker-dealers ahead of RIAs as the channel likely to grow fastest, according to a new survey from Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
In Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s sixth annual Annuity Industry Survey released Monday, 24% of respondents picked RIA adoption of annuities as the most significant industry trend over a three-year horizon, making it the top answer over continued growth in RILA sales (30%) and an expected rise in in-plan adoption (15%).
GSAM's 2026 annuity survey gathered responses from 103 participants at 28 US insurance carriers between June 30 and July 28. The carriers hold more than $1 trillion in annuity assets and include nine of the 10 largest issuers by 2025 sales, based on LIMRA data.
The medium-term bet on RIAs comes with a sharp reordering of carriers’ near-term priorities. Asked which distribution channel would grow most over the next three years, 47% of respondents named independent broker-dealers, up from 38% a year earlier. RIAs led carriers' expectations in the 2025 survey at 45%, though those hopes have fallen to 33% this year.
Just 9% of respondents this year cited specialty markets, including independent marketing organizations, though wirehouses and banks trailed even further behind at 7% and 5%, respectively.
Advising carriers to keep focusing on both IBDs and RIAs, Goldman said the independent channel’s rise could reflect more flexible advisor economics, wider access to AI and technology tools, and advisors’ demand for fiduciary independence.
“This year’s survey highlights how insurers are actively building resilient platforms for future growth, where global asset diversification, versatile product suites, and the conversion of AI from a future concept into a practical tool all work together to serve retirement savers,” said Marci Green, head of retirement distribution and third-party insurance for the Americas at GSAM.
There are structural reasons behind the slower annuity uptake in the RIA channel. A new white paper from Cerulli found that independent RIAs use commissionable insurance products far less than advisors overall (15% vs. 51%). The gap is similar for fixed-indexed annuities (24% of independent RIAs, vs. 58% of all advisors) and RILAs (7% vs. 37%).
Hybrid RIAs with a broker-dealer affiliation can sell variable annuities on commission, an arrangement Cerulli said could allow an advisor to act as a fiduciary in one part of a client relationship while operating as a registered representative in another area.
Independent RIAs whose advisors hold state insurance licenses can sell fixed annuities and life insurance directly, sometimes on commission, Cerulli said, while true fee-only firms hold neither license, typically offering annuities through referral partners or using the growing selection of fee-based contracts developing across the market.
Among RIAs with at least $5 billion in assets, the number of independent firms with insurance capabilities was estimated to rise from seven in 2020 to 36 in 2025, a 37.3% compound annual growth rate. True fee-only firms grew from 83 to 121, or 7.8% a year, while their slice of that market by assets shrank to 34% from 42%.
In Goldman’s survey, 36% of respondents said fee-based advisory products were a manufacturing focus, showing how carriers are changing to accommodate fiduciary RIA firms' preferences. That includes MassMutual, whose Ascend platform recently crossed a milestone $2 billion in RIA annuity sales.
Support may matter just as much as product design. When asked which resources matter most to them and to the advisors they serve, 34% of carriers ranked annuity advocacy first, and half put it in their top three. Practice management (47%) and market insights (44%) came next.
Technology is also likely playing a part. When it came to their use of artificial intelligence, seven-tenths said AI is helping them improve sales efficiency (70%) and reduce operational costs (68%). A quarter of respondents (26%) also pointed to AI's role in attracting new advisors and clients.
"Nearly all respondents (86%) believe end-investor education and engagement will be strongly driven by AI, and two-thirds believe AI-enabled financial advice will become instrumental," Goldman's report said, pointing to "the rise in sophisticated AI-driven advice engines we have seen retail investors gravitate towards in recent years."
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