Banks

The Bank Insurance and Securities Association compiles and index of securities brokerage and annuity -related revenue of 20 U.S. banks. The BISA-Singer Bank Brokerage Index shows that 61% of the second quarter 2009 revenue of participating banks came from annuity sales. Annuity-related revenue was $95.3 million for the second quarter, a decline of 15% from the previous period. Source: Financial Planning Full Story

Bank holding companies generated three quarters of a billion dollars in annuity fee income during the first three months of 2009--an annual run rate of approximately $3 billion. The fee income is essentially commissions from sales of various annuity products in the banks. Sales by annuity type were not broken-out in the study that came from Michael White Associates. That said, the increase in fixed annuity sales in the first quarter of 2009 likely contributed to robust bank sales. Banks...

MetLife recently announced the launch of a simple, low cost variable annuity called Simple Solutions. The Simple Solutions variable annuity will be sold through banks and is intended to address retirees and near-retirees in the range of 60-80 years of age. Features and highlights include: A guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit of up to 6% of the initial investment if withdrawals begin after age 76, 5% between 65 and 75, and 4% if before age 65. Automatic annual increases of the GLWB if the...