Annuity sales hit record in 2022 amid higher interest rates and fear

Amid inventory market gyrations, recession fears and loftier payouts, customers final 12 months pumped a file sum of cash into annuities, a kind of insurance coverage that gives a assured revenue stream.

Consumers funneled $310.6 billion into annuities in 2022, in line with estimates revealed by Limra, an insurance coverage business commerce group.

That determine is a 17% enhance over the prior file set in 2008, when customers bought $265 billion of annuities. That 12 months, the U.S. was within the throes of the Nice Recession and the inventory market finally bottomed out with a 57% loss.

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Equally, 2022 noticed the S&P 500 Index submit its worst loss since 2008, ending the 12 months down 19.4%. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates aggressively to tamp out stubbornly high inflation, fueling anxieties that the central financial institution would inadvertently tip the nation into recession.

“In ugly instances, folks get involved about security,” stated Lee Baker, an authorized monetary planner and founding father of Apex Monetary Companies, primarily based in Atlanta, and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

All annuities are issued by insurance coverage firms, which hedge dangers like market volatility or the hazard of outliving savings in old age.

Annuities have additionally benefited from the Fed’s cycle of elevating rates of interest, which has translated to a better return on funding. In the meantime, U.S. bonds — which generally act as a ballast when shares fall — suffered their worst year on record in 2022, leaving few choices for savers searching for relative security and an honest return.

“This was a novel 12 months,” Todd Giesing, assistant vice chairman of Limra Annuity Analysis, stated of the components that mixed to drive file annuity gross sales.

Customers had been particularly sanguine about fixed-rate deferred annuities final 12 months. Whole gross sales in that class — $112.1 billion — greater than doubled these in 2021 and broke the prior annual file in 2002, when customers purchased $80.8 billion, in line with Limra information.

Fastened-rate deferred annuities work like a certificates of deposit supplied by a financial institution. Insurers assure a charge of return over a set interval, possibly three or 5 years. On the finish of the time period, consumers can get their a refund, roll it into one other annuity or convert their cash into an revenue stream.

One other class — indexed annuities — captured $79.4 billion, an 8% enhance on its 2019 file, Limra stated.

Listed annuities hedge towards draw back threat. They’re tied to a market index just like the S&P 500; insurers cap earnings to the upside when the market does nicely however put a flooring on losses if it tanks.

“Something that is protection-based and has some draw back safety is doing very nicely,” Giesing advised CNBC final fall.

In the meantime, customers have shied away from variable annuities, the efficiency of which is mostly tied on to the inventory market. Annual gross sales of $61.7 billion had been the bottom since 1995 for these annuities, Limra stated.

Whereas it is unlikely that 2022’s confluence of things — corresponding to large inventory and bond losses and quickly rising rates of interest — will persist within the close to time period, demographic tendencies together with child boomer retirements underpin long-term progress potential for annuity gross sales, Giesing stated. The typical purchaser is round 63 years previous, he stated.

These funds, coupled with different assured sources of revenue corresponding to Social Security, assist guarantee a retiree has money to cowl requirements like a mortgage, utilities and meals in the event that they dwell longer than anticipated and their investments are tapped out or dwindling.

“Am I fearful concerning the consumer operating out of cash? If sure, that is after I take into consideration an annuity,” Carolyn McClanahan, a CFP and founding father of Life Planning Companions, primarily based in Jacksonville, Florida, has advised CNBC.

McClanahan, a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council, does not use single-premium rapid annuities or deferred-income annuities with shoppers who’ve greater than sufficient cash to dwell comfortably in retirement.

Annuities develop into extra of a desire for these someplace within the center: shoppers who’re possible however not essentially going to find the money for. For them, it is extra of an emotional calculus: Will having extra assured revenue provide peace of thoughts?

Additionally they provide retirees the biggest bang for their buck relative to different varieties of annuities, in line with advisors and insurance coverage specialists.

That is as a result of they do not include bells and whistles that price consumers cash.

“The fancier the annuity, the extra the underlying charges are,” McClanahan stated. “And lots of people do not perceive the constraints. It is vital to know what you are shopping for.”

For instance, customers can purchase variable and listed annuities with sure options — often known as “assured dwelling advantages” — that give consumers the selection between a lifetime revenue stream or liquidity (i.e., a few of their a refund) in the event that they want funds early or now not need their funding. These profit options additionally typically include greater prices, in addition to restrictions and different fantastic print that is perhaps troublesome for customers to know, advisors stated.

Against this, nonetheless, customers cannot get again their principal once they purchase single-premium rapid annuities or deferred-income annuities. That is one possible motive customers do not buy them as readily, regardless of their revenue effectivity, Giesing stated.

Single-premium rapid annuity gross sales had been $9.1 billion in 2022, and customers purchased about $2.1 billion of deferred-income annuities, Limra stated. For context, these figures are, respectively, a couple of twelfth and a 53rd of fixed-rate deferred annuity gross sales.

Safety-focused annuities might make sense for somebody 5 to 10 years away from retirement who cannot abdomen funding volatility and is prepared to pay a barely greater price for stability, Baker stated.

Nevertheless, their worth proposition might not make sense for all buyers at a time once they can now get a return over 4% on safe-haven belongings corresponding to shorter-term U.S. Treasury bonds (a 3-month, 1-year and 2-year, for instance) in the event that they maintain these bonds to maturity, Baker stated. Nevertheless, these Treasury bonds do not assure a sure revenue stream like annuities do.