National Plan Holdings Posts Sales, Revenue Increases

By Cyril Tuohy

InsuranceNewsNet

National Plan Holdings, a holding company for four separate broker-dealers with a total of 3,545 registered reps, posted third quarter revenue of $247 million, an increase of 14.8 percent compared with the year-ago period, the company said.

Third quarter sales reached $5.12 billion, an increase of 21.9 percent over the year-ago period.

National Plan is an affiliate of Jackson National Life, the top seller of variable annuities in the U.S. last year. National Plan serves as a holding company for INVEST Financial Corp., Investment Centers of America, National Planning Corp., and SII Investments.

Clifford Jack, chairman and chief executive officer of National Plan, said the results show the company remains a “model of reliability and constancy for advisors, advisor groups and institutions that call the NPH broker-dealers ‘home.’“

The company’s consultative advisor culture and its “intuitive” technology platforms help retain brokers and advisors, he added. Advisor counts have been relatively stable over the past several quarters, the company also said.

Revenues year to date for the period ended Sept. 30, came to a $717.4 million, an increase of 14.4 percent over the year-ago period, the company said. Sales jumped to $15.5 billion, an increase of 24.6 percent compared with $12.4 billion in the year-ago period.

NPH and Jackson are wholly owned subsidiaries of U.K.-based Prudential PLC.

Jackson National, which reported selling $19.7 billion worth of variable annuities last year, booked $20.7 billion in total sales and deposits in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 5.4 percent over last year, the company reported earlier this year.

Higher interest rates have helped U.S. based life insurance companies and distributors of their products turn in strong third quarter numbers. Strong sales numbers have even led Jackson to ease off selling some types of variable annuities to limit exposure concentrations.

LPL Financial Holdings, a competitor of National Plan Holdings, on Oct. 30 reported third quarter net income of $37.6 million, an increase of 9.7 percent over the year-ago period, on revenue of $1 billion, up 16.1 percent over the third quarter 2012.

National Plan’s results mirror strong third-quarter results posted by U.S. life insurers. Net income of the group of U.S. life insurers followed by Moody’s Investors Service rocketed to $6.4 billion, an increase of 188 percent over the $2.2 billion in the year-ago period, the ratings agency said.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

© Entire contents copyright 2013 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.