What can carriers do to goose strong indexed annuity sales?

Registered indexed-linked annuities have been leading the industry growth wave for several years. Yet, analysts say that wave will not hit its crest anytime soon.

There are now about two dozen insurance companies offering RILA products, each with their own little twist. RILA sales set new quarterly and mid-year sales records, LIMRA recently reported. In the second quarter of 2025, RILA sales were $19.1 billion. For the first half, RILA sales jumped 18% year over year to $36.7 billion.

RILAs are deferred annuity contracts that let investors participate in stock-market–linked growth while sharply limiting loss potential. RILAs are the daring stepsister of fixed-indexed annuities, which have a zero-loss floor.

All signs point to these indexed-linked products continuing to resonate with consumers, said Keith Golembiewski, assistant vice president, annuity research, for LIMRA and LOMA.

“We've seen a lot of growth. Growth through the pandemic, significant growth over the last three years,” Golembiewski said. “Clearly, [interest] rates were a catalyst for a lot of those sales, but a lot of other things going on as well. From an insurance company standpoint, just adding product, getting into these product spaces, distributors starting to add more of these products on their product shelf, and, just in general, a lot of growing awareness of annuities.”

Golembiewski is hosting a final-day session titled “Indexing the Future: Unlocking Growth Through Fixed and Registered Indexed-Linked Annuities” at the LIMRA 2025 Annual Conference.

Goose those sales

The session goal is a simple one: how to keep the sales train rolling down the track. There is an industry debate surrounding the simplicity, or lack thereof, of some indexed products, Golembiewski said, and the panel will address this topic.

"How do we make them simple or simple to understand from a financial professional standpoint, and then a consumer standpoint?" he explained. "Technology is clearly going to be one of those areas of focus. How do you make it easy to understand? How do you help the financial professional position these products side by side?"

The economic climate is sure to support continued annuity sales, Golumbiewski noted. Market volatility remains high, with the chances of a recession lurking as unemployment, inflation and interest rates move up and down.

RILAs are resonating with consumers who still want gains from a strong equities market, while eliminating the chance of a retirement nest egg wipeout. With roughly two dozen different insurers offering their own RILA product, some are suggesting a "saturation" of the market. But Golembiewski doesn't see product quantity having a major impact.

"Right now, I feel really good about the RILA growth, even with some of the volatility and the potential for pullbacks on kind of the economic environment," he said.

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