Non-Qualified Annuities Regain Favor

After six months of negative cash flows, non-qualified annuities turned positive in the third quarter.

Such annuities also gained market share, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Nevertheless, flows into qualified annuities–those purchased for company retirement plans and IRAs–continued to far exceed flows into non-qualified annuities.

Net cash flows into non-qualified annuities were negative by more than $550 million last January. The negative numbers declined gradually through the first half of this year and turned slightly positive in July. By September 2012, positive cash flows reached almost $465 million, which was more than double the positive net inflows from September 2011.

This rebound in non-qualified annuities brought their share of all inflows up to 42% in September 2012, vs. only 39% in December 2011. Even so, net cash flows into  qualified annuities remained significantly higher than those into non-qualified accounts. In both August and September 2012, net cash flows into qualified annuities were well over $1.5 billion.

In addition to producing such reports on the overall annuity market, DTCC has extended its online “Analytic Reporting for Annuities” information service to provide details on annuity market activity by zip code. The new feature, Territory Management, provides the what, where and how of annuity market activity so users can track their firm’s performance and market share in specific areas.

“Territory Management is designed for broker-dealers and insurance companies to use but advisors also can find it valuable,” Andrew Blumberg, business manager, analytic reporting, for DTCC told Financial Planning. “Advisors can see where business is taking place, so they’ll know where to look for opportunities.”

According to Blumberg, DTCC’s new offering breaks out annuity sales by product type within zip codes: fixed, variable, indexed. “Territory Management also shows qualified versus non-qualified sales,” he said. “For qualified accounts, there is a breakdown for 401(k)s, 403(b)s, rollovers IRAs, Roth IRAs, and so on. The more advisors know what’s happening and where, the more prepared they’ll be to do annuity business.”