\t\t\t\tThe Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has decided to pay closer attention to the sale of fixed annuities in part because brokerage firms are selling a larger chunk of indexed annuities these days. Regulators want to examine the procedures and policies involving clients giving up or trading variable annuities to place the assets into equity indexed annuities and other products.<\/p>\n
According to InvestmentNews<\/em>, broker-dealers are becoming a force in the indexed annuities era. They were accountable for 11.4% of the market’s share last year, an 8.9% jump from the year before. In a report, the Insured Retirement Institute said that the US annuity industry made $220.9 billion in sales in 2013. Fixed annuity sales for that year was $78.1 billion. Indexed annuities sales hit $38.6 billion.<\/p>\n During this first quarter, reports InvestmentNews<\/em>, LPL Financial (LPLA), which is the biggest independent brokerage firm, saw a surge in fixed annuities sales. Revenues of fixed income was $46.7 million-70.8% more than during the first three months of 2013.<\/p>\n