Sales are surging. Product innovation is accelerating. And a convergence of insurance, retirement and wealth management is reshaping how advisors deploy annuities, according to industry leaders who spoke on a webinar in late April.

At the center of the shift: a powerful mix of demographics, technology and regulatory recalibration.

“ We’ ve hit back-to-back record sales years,” said Dan Gutman, head of wealth solutions at Prudential Retirement Strategies, speaking on a panel sponsored by Bloomberg Intelligence.“ What’ s fueling that is the diversity of solutions available today.”

U. S. annuity sales are on a historic run, hitting record highs for four consecutive years. Total sales reached about $ 432.4 billion in 2024, up 12 % year over year, and climbed again to roughly $ 464.1 billion in 2025. That marks a dramatic surge from just $ 385 billion in 2023 and roughly $ 240 billion in 2019. LIMRA expects sales to remain above $ 450 billion in 2026.

The key takeaway is that even with expected interest-rate cuts, analysts broadly expect continued elevated demand rather than a pullback, driven by demographics( the surge in the number of baby boomers turning 65), product innovation and ongoing demand for protected income solutions.

The growth is broad-based. Fixed-indexed annuities, registered index-linked annuities and newer hybrid structures are expanding the market beyond traditional buyers. Only about 2 % of retirement assets currently include protected income, leaving what Gutman called“ tremendous opportunity” for expansion.

Industry executives say the next leg of growth will be driven less by any single product and more by structural change.“ In my view, it’ s really the convergence of insurance, retirement and wealth management that’ s going to propel growth,” Gutman said.

That convergence is already happening. Insurance“ overlay” products are allowing advisors to add guaranteed income to managed accounts without moving assets off their platforms. New index strategies— including custom and even crypto-linked indices— are expanding investment options inside annuities. And distribution is broadening across broker-dealers, RIAs and retirement plans.

And the product innovation is accelerating. Panelist Tom Haines, executive vice president at retirement income and product planning company Annexus, said the industry is moving beyond reliance on traditional benchmarks like the S & P 500 toward more diversified, customized index strategies.

New structures are also emerging to address client behavior.“ Clients with annuities spend more and are generally happier,” Gutman said, citing research on the“ license to spend” effect noted by retirement thinkers at the American College of Financial Services, which found that annuities can significantly increase retiree spending rates.

Demographics remain a powerful tailwind. The industry recently saw a wave of baby boomers entering retirement, a phenomenon some refer to as“ Peak 65.” But the panelists said the opportunity extends beyond that cohort.

“ We’ re now talking about peak 75,” Haines said, pointing to growing demand for income and healthcare-related solutions later in retirement.

Ian Laverty, vice president of annuity product strategy at Delaware Life Insurance / Group 1001, said education remains a major hurdle.“ There’ s only two types of people who know what an annuity is— people in the industry and people watching commercials,” he said.

That gap underscores a broader challenge. Annuities are still“ sold, not bought,” requiring advisors to translate complex products into client outcomes.“ We need a better story,” said another panelist, Jason Berkowitz, the chief legal and regulatory affairs officer at the Insured Retirement Institute.

At the same time, regulation is shifting— again. The Department of Labor twice tried to float a fiduciary rule that would require advisors recommending things such as annuities to meet a higher standard of care. That rule was vacated in March by a federal

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