Annuity sales are at record highs, nearly doubling since 2020. Private equity, shifting advisor fee models and an evolving regulatory landscape, are reshaping how insurers and distributors keep pace.
The annuities marketplace is banking on continued investment from private equity to keep up with product demand, as US annuity sales increased 8 percent year-over-year to a record $119.2 billion in the second quarter, according to LIMRA.
LIMRA’s data also shows total US annuity sales nearly doubled from $219 billion in 2020 to $434 billion in 2024, and reached a record $223 billion in the first half of 2025. The trade association hosted a webinar in September, titled, “What Will It Take to Double Annuity Sales Over the Next 5 Years?” hosted by LIMRA’s SVP and head of research Bryan Hodgens.
“Over the last several years, there’s been a lot of capital in the market,” Hodgens tells InvestmentNews. “A lot of private equity money that’s come into the insurance industry − the use of reinsurance to be able to offload some of the liabilities of these products and free up more capital for deployment for the insurer − that’s got to continue, that availability of capital in order for us to continue to grow.”
Some main financial backers of the annuities industry share growing ownership ties with American’s biggest sports franchises. For example, Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, who purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers for a league record $10 billion, also owns annuity product providers Delaware Life and Gainbridge via his Group 1001 insurance holding company.
“It’s not just in the products. I’d also say it’s in distribution as well because you’re seeing private equity show up in some of the independent marketing organizations − broker general agencies where they’re investing in platforms that are known to distribute both annuities and life insurance,” says Hodgens. “Whether it’s on the annuity side or the life insurance side, it’s just this opportunity for the investment into the products because the need is there.”
Walter is part of the ownership group behind the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, which includes former Guggenheim Partners president Todd Boehly, who also owns the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and the English Premier League soccer club Chelsea FC. Boehly’s private investment firm Eldridge Industries is an investor in commission-free annuities marketplace DPL Financial Partners. DPL’s founder and CEO David Lau tells InvestmentNews that his firm’s annuity sales more than tripled over the past two years, surpassing $5 billion.
“I think they see that we can play a very important role in the future of annuity usage,” Lau says of DPL’s private equity backers. “I think they see that we represent the future of the annuity distribution world. We’re working with fiduciary advisors, with fiduciary products that are based on fees rather than commissions. And anybody really can see that’s the direction of the world.”
DPL’s most recent fundraise was a $23 million Series C round led by Eos Ventures with participation from TIAA Ventures. Boehly’s Eldridge invested in a $26 million growth capital raise announced in 2021 by DPL. Former Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital is also an investor in DPL Financial Partners.
“Annuities are still largely commission-driven, and the number of advisors willing to accept the commission these days continues to contract,” Lau says. “Advisors will move their business practice to working on fees from customers rather than sales commissions from product companies. The annuity industry really needs to embrace that model and create more products and systems that support those kind of advisors, or else they’ll continue to work in a contracting addressable market.”
Tate McMillin, regional sales manager at Pacific Life Retirement Solutions, says that the fee compression confronting advisors is playing a role in their annuity product interests.
“There’s been a bit of a pendulum swing away from fee-based annuity strategies like variable annuities and toward spread-based products like fixed-index annuities and RILAs,” says McMillin. “And in those latter two strategies, there is not an explicit fee presentation to the client, which many advisors and clients find attractive.”
Sales of registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) reached $65.6 billion in 2024, 38 percent higher than in 2023. LIMRA says 2024 marked the first year ever that RILA sales surpassed traditional variable annuity sales, which was $60.9 billion in 2024.
“We’re definitely seeing the rise of popularity of RILAs, and I think that is indicative of a few things,” says McMillin. “I think it’s representative of a growing shift toward asset protection, fee compression, need for account value growth, and all that combined with an aging population.”
The high-interest-rate environment of the past few years, and America’s growing population nearing retirement age, also have been catalysts for the boom in annuity sales. Research released in July from the Alliance for Lifetime Income by LIMRA found that 58 percent of consumers ages 45 to 75 are concerned that their Social Security benefits will be reduced based on recent actions taken by the federal government, and that 30 percent of consumers ages 61 to 65 say they are now considering delaying retirement.
“This whole question of how much guaranteed income will I have from Social Security, at what age can I get my full benefit, and is it going to get adjusted? I think that plays into the psyche of some of this retirement planning,” says Hodgens. “I think advisors working with consumers bring up annuities as a guaranteed income source to complement Social Security and other guaranteed income they may have, maybe from a pension.”
The Trump Administration has considered regulatory changes overseeing annuities during this time of booming sales. In August, the US Department of Labor withdrew a direct final rule that would have eliminated a regulatory safe harbor in place since 2006 for selecting annuity providers in workplace retirement plans. The DOL’s withdrawal decision followed significant opposition from the Insured Retirement Institute and other industry stakeholders.
“Policymakers are trying to expand retirement plan coverage and promote lifetime income options which annuities are part of, and we saw that removing the safe harbor would move in the opposite direction by creating more uncertainty and reducing access to innovative products like annuities,” Emily Micale, director of federal regulatory affairs at the Insured Retirement Institute, tells InvestmentNews.
Lau, whose annuity and insurance marketplace DPL Financial Partners is used by 1,500 RIA firms and 13,000 advisors spanning about $2 trillion in collective assets, thinks consumers would benefit from additional regulation of annuities.
“I think the current regular landscape is actually very favorable to annuities, maybe a little too favorable as there isn’t a fiduciary standard relative to annuities. They still operate only under a suitability standard, regulatory wise,” Lau says. “So that gives advisors and compliance departments a fair amount of leeway in being able to sell an annuity to an individual. We’ve been big supporters of a fiduciary rule because we think it would be good overall for the industry in the long term, and certainly much better for consumers.”
