Due to the proven volatility of the stock market more and more people are looking for ways to gain a consistent form of income. One of the most effective ways to earn a guaranteed stream of income would be to purchase an annuity. Due to the increased demand, bank sold annuities have hit their highest mark in 15 months.
According to a recent study that was put together by Kehrer-LIMRA, the total amount of bank sold annuities increased by 27 percent in February 2011 compared to the previous month. The annuities sold totaled about $3.3 billion which is an impressive 33 percent more than what was sold the year earlier. Both variable and fixed annuities increased substantially.
In February variable annuities sold totaled about $1.68 billion. These sales were about 24% higher than they were in January and over 40 percent higher than they were the previous February. While the variable annuities did see a drastic increase in sales, they did not do as well as fixed rate annuities. The fixed rate version of the product saw sales of $1.7 billion, which was about a 29 percent increase over the previous month and 17 percent higher than the sales were in February 2010.
Researchers have concluded that the sales environment for bank sold annuities were very high in February because of overall consumer confidence had increased in the economy. In February the Dow Jones Industrial Average had hit 12,000 points for the first since the recession and the overall unemployment rate had decreased to 9 percent.
While sales of the annuities were pretty strong in February, the March results are still up in the air. Since February the economy has appeared a bit shaky as oil prices have skyrocketed, which could delay the economic growth that has taken place over the past few months.
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