BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 22

FEATURE STORY

Can You Feel
the Vibration?
The insurance industry has been waiting
some years for fee-based annuities to
catch on - and even longer for feebased indexed annuities. Are we getting
any closer?
"It's a little too early to tell if fee-based
indexed annuities will experience successful sales levels," said Sheryl J. Moore,
president and CEO of Moore Market Intelligence and Wink, publisher of the indexed
life and annuity industry tracker Wink's
Sales & Market Report, in an interview with
InsuranceNewsNet.1
"I definitely think that the outcome of the
DOL's proposed fiduciary rule has the
power to influence sales of these products
going forward," she said in her interview.
Ron Grensteiner, president of American
Equity Investment Life Insurance doesn't
think it will be that difficult to do.
"We have a couple of products on the
shelf; it is just a matter of stripping off the
commissions and leaving the surrender
charges and the other features intact, and
then increasing caps and participation
rates on those products and putting them
out there," he said in an analyst conference
call in 2017.
"So, there is no filing that we feel we have
to do; it's just something that we haven't
done yet and are waiting to see if there is a
demand for it," said Grensteiner.

1. Cyril Tuohy, "Here Come the Fee-Based
Indexed Annuities", InsuranceNewsNet.com,
February 20, 2017, https://insurancenewsnet.
com/innarticle/here-come-the-fee-basedindexed-annuities.

22
www.bisanet.org

The average sales rep at American
Equity tends to be younger on the
bank side (45-55 years of age) than on
the traditional insurance distribution
side (55-65).
There aren't many downsides in the
bank channel either, Bergoine adds,
other than lots of regulation - but that
is something to which everyone must
get accustomed.

will be able to sell products?" Dedicated reps (FAs)? Sure. But what about
platform bankers? Some banks will allow them to sell MYGAs, says Varisco.
But sell FIAs? Maybe not.

The average sales rep at American
Equity tends to be younger, and on the
bank side rather than on the traditional
insurance distribution side.

Further, will advisors even sell commissioned products? Will everything be
fee-based? If so, insurance companies
will have to develop fee-based FIAs,
says Varisco. (American Equity is looking at developing a fee-based FIA).

"The largest agent demographic for
American Equity (the parent company)
is between ages 55 and 65. For Eagle
Life [i.e., the company's bank channel
subsidiary], the largest age demographic is between ages 45 and 55,"
says Heather Gierstorf, vice president,
Communications.
Questions remain, of course. Once the
DOL picture is clear, "Who in the bank

In any event, look at how much
money is controlled by banks and
B/Ds overall versus how much is
controlled by insurance companies,
says Bergoine. Banks and B/Ds have
the edge.
"That's where the money is," he
says. ▲


http://www.InsuranceNewsNet.com https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/here-come-the-fee-based-indexed-annuities https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/here-come-the-fee-based-indexed-annuities https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/here-come-the-fee-based-indexed-annuities http://www.bisanet.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017

Table of Contents
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - Cover1
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - Cover2
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - Table of Contents
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 2
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 3
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 4
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BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 32
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - Cover3
BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2017q4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2017q3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2017q2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2017q1
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2016q4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2016q3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2016q2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2016q1
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2015q4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2015q3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2015q2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2015q1
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2014q4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2014q3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2014q2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/bisa/2014q1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com