U.S. sales of individual annuities increased 6.4% between the second quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, to $115 billion, according to new issuer survey data from Wink.
Market-linked products: Total sales of market-linked annuities increased 8.4%, year over year, to $34 billion, but sales of traditional variable annuities were not as strong as sales of RILA contracts. Traditional variable annuity sales rose just 0.4%, to $15 billion.
Fixed annuities: Although total sales of fixed annuities increased 5.9%, to $78 billion, MYGA contracts were responsible for all of that growth.
Sales of fixed indexed annuities, which are similar to RILAs in some ways but protect the purchasers’ contributions against market-related losses, fell 0.2%, to $32 billion. Sales of fixed annuities with one-year rate guarantees fell 9.3%, to $460 million.
What it means: Growth in the U.S. individual annuity market is uneven right now. Sales for some products are rising rapidly, and sales for other, somewhat similar products are shrinking. Broker-dealers increased their share of individual annuity sales to 40% in the second quarter, from 38% in the year-earlier quarter, while independent agents’ share fell to 24%, from 26%, according to Wink data.