SS&C's Black Diamond adds insurers as annuity demand grows

SS&C Technologies Holdings widened the insurance offerings inside its Black Diamond Wealth Solutions platform, adding term life quoting and policy review tools alongside two new carrier partners as fee-based annuity adoption among RIAs continues to climb.

The Windsor, Connecticut-based technology firm, working with DPL Financial Partners, announced on Wednesday that it has expanded the Annuities & Insurance Marketplace, known as AIM, within Black Diamond.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company and Protective Life Insurance Company have joined the platform, bringing its roster of integrated carriers to seven alongside Allanz Life, MassMutual, Pacific Life, Security Benefit, and Midland National Life Insurance Company.

Jackson's addition gives advisors annuities purpose-built for the RIA channel, aimed at helping them fold tax-deferred growth and protected income into retirement plans. Protective is contributing both annuity and life insurance products for accumulation and protection planning.

"Insurance has been the last part of the client balance sheet advisors could see but not act on, with coverage sitting in a drawer or an annuity at a carrier while neither appears in the plan," said Steve Leivent, senior vice president and co-head of SS&C Wealth & Investment Technologies. "Advisors can now quote term coverage, conduct in-depth policy reviews, and manage insurance as an advisory asset, all within their existing workflow."

Read more: Want to go RIA with annuities? Here’s where to start

The rollout gives advisors a term life quoting tool that compares rates across A and A+ rated carriers, plus a policy review feature designed to flag coverage gaps in a client's existing portfolio. Those additions sit alongside AIM's existing lineup of fee-based annuities and life, disability and long-term care insurance.

Jackson and Protective framed the move as a play for growing demand among advisors and RIAs. "Financial professionals are seeking greater flexibility in helping clients prepare for retirement, and annuities can play an important part of that strategy," said Alison Reed, head of distribution at Jackson.

Lauren Drapeau, vice president and national sales director for advisory solutions at Protective, said the partnership "[gives] advisors another way to incorporate protection considerations alongside the broader planning conversations they're already having."

The updates follow a string of changes SS&C has made to AIM since January, including pre-filled carrier applications, a legacy annuity review tool for converting held-away commission-based contracts into fee-based advisory assets, and expanded scenario-modeling and reporting features for protection discussions.

The expansion lands as fee-based annuity sales keep climbing industry-wide. LIMRA estimates that fee‑based annuity sales have doubled since 2020, driven by greater adoption among RIAs benefiting from enhanced technology platforms.

Read more: Annuity sales hit a record as war and Fed jitters redraw fixed income

Goldman Sachs Asset Management's fifth annual Annuity Industry Survey also revealed high hopes for the RIA channel, where 45% of responding insurers expected the greatest growth across all channels over the next three years. More broadly, 90% expected AI to reshape client education, particularly around the value of annuities and other guaranteed income options.

"With annuity advocacy ranked the most value-added resource, there is significant opportunity for AI to impact annuity adoption across the industry," the report said.