Will Annuity Issuers’ RILA Phase Last?
May 20, 2025 by Allison Bell
The big, publicly traded U.S. life and annuity issuers did well in the first quarter, in spite of everything, but analysts at Morgan Stanley are wondering about the registered index-linked annuity boom.
Today, Bob Jian Huang and other Morgan Stanley analysts wrote, the issuers are turning toward sales of RILA contracts and away from sales of traditional variable annuity contracts.
Wink’s Moore on the Market: “While RILA is serving as a replacement [for variable annuities], we believe the longer-term strategy is to pivot towards asset/wealth management.”
Seriously? I DO NOT agree.
One product offers a guaranteed income stream for life; the other doesn’t. Why would these two even be compared?!
“If the Morgan Stanley analysts are correct, some annuity issuers could eventually tilt away from offering annuities.”
See above.
-sjm
