Immediate annuities, also known as income annuities and payout annuities, can replace disappearing corporate pensions, but sales have been tepid.

LIMRA, a research, consulting and professional development organization, reported that income annuity sales reached $8.7 billion in 2012, a small percentage of total annuity sales, which reached $219.4 billion. Insurers have responded by offering features such as liquidity, death benefits, and flexible income options for income annuities.

Amid these changes, advisors who are engaged in retirement income planning are beginning to take a second look at income annuities, according to Mark Paracer, research project director at LIMRA. Paracer pointed to a 2012 LIMRA study that brought responses from more than 1,000 advisors.

“Our findings showed that more advisors are interested in products in general (32% in 2011 vs. 31% in 2009),” he said. “That was especially true for RIAs (33% in 2011 vs. 24% in 2009).” That study also indicated that solutions are often well received by clients: 63% of advisors agreed while only 7% disagreed.

“Most importantly,” Paracer said, “the attitudes of advisors are shifting to more recognition of the benefits of solutions versus the benefits of non- solutions: 56% in 2011 vs. 40% in 2009. There is also a shift in advisor attitudes toward the idea that a solution should be used to cover non-discretionary expenses in retirement: 48% in 2011 vs. 38% in 2009.”

Paracer noted that including an income annuity — either deferred or immediate — can help retirees ensure that at least their essential expenses in retirement are covered, thus allowing advisors to invest the remaining portion of their portfolio with a goal of higher returns.

According to Lowell Aronoff, CEO at CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd., which compiles data on financial products, there is a disconnect between the need for income annuities and the amount of sales. “Retirement income research universally suggests that income annuities should be a core product for nearly all retirees,” he stated, “yet sales of these products are still fairly modest.”

One objection to income annuities has been the “hit by a truck” fear. A consumer might buy an annuity that would pay a lifetime income and die soon afterwards, thereby relinquishing capital for little return. A recent joint study by CANNEX and LIMRA found that annuity issuers now address this concern. [Read More from OnWallStreet…]

Video Transcription:

Dick: Hello, I’m Dick.

Eric: And I’m Eric. And we’re the annuity guys.

Dick. Yes! And Eric, there’s a new kid on the block.

Eric: A new innovation to the industry.

Dick: The most exciting thing that’s come along in the several years actually.

Eric: It’s funny how you make some old things new again. And people think annuities are boring.

Dick: Well, it is boring Eric.

Eric: This is exciting for us… we’re getting a lot of fun with this.

Dick: And for years, the variable annuity^# was called a hybrid annuity. Then along comes the fixed index annuity; and what we saw really change that was those new income rider as they came out on them.

Eric: Opportunities for growth and income and **guarantees…

Dick: And hence, the hybrid annuity is born. And now we have the immediate hybrid annuity which has earned a little bit better from their cousin…

Eric: It’s taking some of the hybrid and fixed pieces, and some of the variable pieces and slide it on the immediate annuity which is like… “why the heck would you want to do that?”

Dick: Well, and that brings up another point agents are talking about this too much.

Eric: Don’t tell anybody. And there’s a reason why…

Dick: There’s a reason why. Well, the truth on these immediate hybrid annuity folks, there really more than likely to catch on in a big way because there’s so many good features to them that we want to explain and help you understand, but they’re also the very low commission. They don’t pay the agents very high commission.

Eric: That’s probably a lot of people really didn’t talk about even a standard immediate annuity before; and now all of a sudden we’re certainly get a little bit more innovation and I think people are going to have to start talking about it because the features are there and we’ll see what we can get – higher payouts perhaps…

Dick: A greatly increased income…

Eric: Increased income. Fees… oh -oh.. No fees…

Dick: That’s a big negative. Now that was one of the things on the variable annuity^# that really became, I don’t want to say the death of the variable annuity^#, but a lot of folks moved away from the variable annuity^# because of the high fees; and they still do. The hybrid annuity which we’ve explained many times is the fixed indexed annuity chassis typically, the standard hybrid annuity, and it lowered the fees a lot but it still has fees Eric.

Eric: Some of them do but not all of them. The most commonly you’re looking at 1/2 and 1 percent on an income rider which is what **guarantees your income for life on that kind of fixed indexed or hybrid chassis.

Dick: So now we’ve move over to the immediate hybrid annuity and we’re talking about zero fees.

Eric: Ohh my…

Dick: No fees folks, no annual fees.

Eric: No fees, higher payouts..

Dick: For lifetime income and it last ’till your retirement and the most innovative aspect to this which is what really takes it into this hybrid annuity realm is access to your principal.

Eric: Right. Access to your liquidity… it gives you some liquidity options that didn’t used to be there. Now, we’re not going to pretend that you’re going to go out there withdraw everything without penalties or such but it does give you access to emergency cash and we’re seeing more and more carriers try to offer this.

Dick: And many folks would have opted for an immediate annuity if they had some all those options in the past; they just weren’t available. One of the things, Eric, that I want to talk about and we kinda get this… You and I were never really against the insurance company; we’re always for the client. So, if there’s a way that the client can actually win and I mean let’s face it, most clients feel that the deck is stacked against them when dealing with an insurance company. So if there’s a way to win what you really want to do is get your money out of the insurance company early, faster,… the sooner you can get your money out and have them paying you their money the better off you are.

Eric: And if you haven’t figured out what an annuity is really, it’s a return of your money to you…

Dick: Plus a small return…

Eric: Plus a **guarantee that you’ll get that return as long as you’re alive.

Dick: Yes.

Eric: Those are the key aspects of an annuity and so lifetime income… well, you want to get your portion that you paid in

back quickly and then you’re starting to work on their money.

Dick: What’s so exciting about this Eric is that we’ve been able to run the numbers and we’ve seen now the breaking point where it really works for folks, and those payouts where they can have a considerably larger amount of money at certain ages and even in that early stages make a lot more income

Eric: Well, looking at a typical portfolio size we see and 401K for a 65-year-old male, single… that difference between a popular hybrid payout paying about five and a half percent and then these immediate hybrid annuities are now also paying about almost 6.7 percent; so you’re talking about…

Dick: Compared to five-and-a-half percent…

Eric: Right. So for somewhat two hundred fifty thousand and looking as their foundational income, talk about two thousand dollars a month difference.

Dick: That equates out to somewhere between forty and fifty thousand dollars over twenty years which is a typical retirement. I mean some of which are much longer than that but a typical retirement pushes twenty years nowadays…

Eric: And I’m sorry, i said per month, it should have been year.

Dick: Right, I took it as annual… right. right…

Eric: So, The lifetime number is just the amount of money you would leave on the table is just astronomical.

Dick: It’s just large, yes!

Eric: As we’re looking at it. We’re always excited to talk to people about it…

Dick: Well, we get excited because they get excited. It’s like everyone’s kinda look at the standard fixed indexed hybrid annuity and they’ve compare them one against the other, and finally there something out that kinda breaks the mold and answers a lot of questions that folks are looking for.

Eric: Exactly, especially for those folks that are retiring, they’re getting buyout options. We’re hearing all these people and they’re gonna retire and they’re going to start needing money now and that’s where this works extremely well. It’s exciting.. I am excited!

Dick: So, we’re talking… it works better for those folks that need money in what time period? Obviously there’s a next 30 days but then how much further out might might this strategy work?

Eric: Well, with this specific strategy really because you’re using an immediate income chassis, your looking at income the next 12 months.

Dick: Yes.

Eric: But obviously then we start looking at when does a hybrid best-perform, usually on that stage you’re looking at having to deffer for at least five years.

Dick: Rights. So if you’re wanting to be able to balance this and say well “if my income, I need in about three years” maybe you should hold off a little bit or use a different type of an annuity to get you to that level where you’re ready to turn the income on and then use this type of an immediate hybrid annuity.

Eric: Right and that’s where we say run the numbers, look at the options. It might be worth taking a two percent **guarantee for a couple years knowing you’re going to get a better payment in two years with an immediate hybrid than you would with a standard hybrid annuity.

Dick: Eric, let’s put together some of those numbers for folks and do a webinar on that that they can watch and maybe even have a button on the website where they can just go and look at those numbers and do some real comparisons, and then they can get back with us if they have questions.

Eric: We’re always welcome to help share those numbers for people on an individual level that are looking at what those options would be as well.

Dick: Okay folks, thank you very much. Eric: Have a great day.