FINRA Beefs Up Its RILA Advice
February 4, 2025 by Allison Bell
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority examiners may be thinking more this year about registered index-linked annuities.
FINRA has recognized the rise of the RILA by changing the name of the annuities section in its latest annual oversight report to “Annuities Securities Products,” from “Variable Annuities” in the 2024 report; adding many references to RILAs; and including an analysis of RILA market trends.
Wink’s Moore on the Market: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission now seems to be treating the structured annuity/RILA as a separate type of product, than a variable annuity.
Further, FINRA also seems to be treating the RILA as a registered annuity that’s distinct from the variable annuity.
This article also mentions some behavior with RILAs that they do not like. I think you’ll find it intriguing.
Note that structured annuities accounted for 14.0% of $110.9 billion in annuity sales for 3Q2024.
Thanks for the intel, Allison Bell with ThinkAdvisor! -sjm