Displaying items by tag: aig

(New York)

There is one sector that is facing a worrying meltdown as coronavirus rolls on. It isn’t as obvious as you may think—its not retail, or restaurants, or autos. Rather, it is insurance. Insurers are about to be hit with otherworldly losses. The head of Lloyd’s of London says COVID-19 will be the most expensive event in the history of insurance, wiping out previous records set during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The range of payouts coming is enormous, spanning event cancellation to management liability to business interruption. According to Lloyd’s “You’re into tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of loss that will be discussed over time”.

FINSUM: This might not have been immediately apparent to some. Look out.

(New York)

Advisors who are receiving inbound interest from clients about annuities might be interested in browsing a list of top recent providers. AIG, John Hancock, Lincoln Financial Group, Pacific Life, and Prudential regularly figure among the top players in the space. That said, data from 2019 has highlighted a new leader of the back—Jackson. “Jackson has dominated the variable annuity market for the past 7 years. In 2019, Jackson diversified its annuity sales to focus on growing its fixed annuity market share, which propelled its overall growth in 2019”, according to an annuities strategist.

FINSUM: One thing that is interesting is that the annuities industry is actually getting a little less consolidated (which stands in contrast to other product sectors, e.g. ETFs). The top three providers only account for 22% market share, down from 25% in 2014.