Total U.S. annuity sales rose 2% year over year to $121.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, marking the 11th consecutive quarter that sales have topped $100 billion, according to final results released this week by LIMRA.
That helped push year-to-date sales to $228.7 billion through June, which LIMRA said marked a new first-half record across its history of tracking.
The figures, which were hardly changed from preliminary results released earlier last month, cap a stretch of unusual resilience for the annuity business, one that has now outlasted several rounds of market turbulence, an uneven rate environment and shifting geopolitical risk.
Bryan Hodgens, senior vice president and head of LIMRA research, pointed to "a combination of global tensions, record equity market performance and rising interest rates [that] continued to drive demand," lifting every major product line from the first quarter.
Registered index-linked annuities did the heaviest lifting. RILA sales set a new quarterly record of $23.3 billion, up 10% from the first quarter and 22% higher than a year earlier. Through six months, LIMRA said RILA sales totaled $44.4 billion, 21% ahead of the same period in 2025.
Keith Golembiewski, assistant vice president and head of LIMRA Annuity Research, said RILAs are drawing interest from investors who "remain eager to participate in market growth but are wary of a downturn."
That tension between chasing gains and fearing a pullback echoes what LIMRA reported the last time quarterly sales cleared the $100 billion mark, when the firm noted RILAs were also cannibalizing demand for fixed indexed annuities.
Fixed-rate deferred annuity sales, meanwhile, have experienced something of a slowdown. Second-quarter FRD sales were $41.8 billion, up 17% from the first quarter but down 9% from a year earlier, leaving first-half FRD sales at $77.4 billion, 10% below the same period in 2025.
Fixed indexed annuity sales followed a similar pattern: $30.6 billion in the quarter, up from the first quarter but 7% lower year over year, as average cap rates slipped slightly.
Variable annuities and income products also posted gains. Traditional variable annuity sales reached $17.7 billion in the quarter, up 24% from a year earlier, lifted by record equity market performance. Income annuities notched records of their own: single premium immediate annuity sales hit $4.1 billion, and deferred income annuity sales rose to $1.3 billion.
LIMRA noted that the prospect of rising interest rates paired with an aging U.S. population moving closer to retirement have made income annuities increasingly attractive, a trend the organization expects could supprot further demand in coming quarters.
According to one survey conducted with Greenwald Research and published by BlackRock, 97% of annuity owners said their annuities help them worry less about running out of money, and 88% said the products ease worries about a stock market downturn. BlackRock's research also found that 84% of annuity owners believe the products make them "less vulnerable to financial fraud or poor financial decisions later in life."
Other research by BlackRock pointed to a potential spending uplift among retirees with annuities, with an average potential spending boost of 22% across all income levels. That impact was slightly more pronounced for lower income earners, where the research found a 25% average uplift.
Read more: Why do retirees struggle to spend their savings? New research reveals the decumulation planning gap
A separate InspereX survey published in April found that 54% of advisors expect to moderately or significantly increase their use of protection strategies for the remainder of the year; 71% said the primary reason is to provide peace of mind to clients, while 67% cited reduced or eliminated risk exposure.
With respect to annuities, 33% of advisors polled by InspereX said they expect to use indexed annuities more this year, while 21% said they same for fixed annuities. Demand for variable annuities was comparatively tepid, with just 16% anticipating greater usage in 2026.
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