Insurance Companies

A group of banks and insurance companies recently formed a London-based trade group called the Life and Longevity Markets Association (LLMA). The LLMA aims to develop a liquid market for longevity risk that taps into broader capital markets rather than just the balance sheets of certain insurers and reinsurers. A core focus will be on longevity swaps and making the longevity swap transaction process more efficient. Longevity swaps serve as a risk transfer alternative to pension buyouts. The...

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 has a provision that will allow for tax free long-term care payments from an annuity product. The law will also allow for Section 1035 Exchanges of older annuity products into the new hybrids. The combined or "hybrid" product has been in development within insurance companies over the past several years. The anticipated launch date for these new products is January 1 2010--the date that the provision in the Pension Protection Act is intended to go into effect...

Total sales of fixed indexed annuities reached $8.3 billion during the second quarter of 2009. This represents an increase of 18.3% from the previous quarter and an increase of 21.2% from the same period a year ago. The sales momentum comes despite industry headwinds which include fewer insurance companies and fewer product offerings. Aviva was the top insurance company in the space with a 20% market share while the top selling indexed annuity product was the MasterDex X from Allianz . Source:...