American National to exit the life insurance business

American National Insurance Co. will stop writing new life insurance policies in order to focus on other products, including the red-hot annuity market.

A spokesperson for American National confirmed the decision Wednesday and sent this statement to InsuranceNewsNet:

“American National has made the strategic decision to stop writing new life insurance business and will continue to focus on growing our annuity, pension risk transfer and property & casualty lines. We have strong confidence in these businesses and expect them to be a big part of our long-term success.

“We remain committed to serving our current life insurance policyholders and will continue to fully service all in-force policies without interruption.”

The application cutoff is May 31, 2025, and businesses must be placed by July 31, 2025, the spokesperson said.

'Writing was on the wall' for life insurance exit

Longtime life insurance insider Sheryl Moore is not surprised by the life insurance exit.

“I think the writing was on the wall when American National was acquired by Brookfield Reinsurance,” she said. “The triumvirate of an insurer/reinsurer/asset manager prefers to focus on indexed annuities.”

In May 2022, Brookfield Reinsurance completed the acquisition of American National Group, Inc., the parent company of American National Insurance Co., in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $5.1 billion.

American National’s market share on the life side is small, Moore said, citing data from Wink’s Sales & Market Report, fourth quarter 2024. The insurer held a 1.68% share of the $3.4 billion non-variable universal life market. American National also held a 0.63% share of the $4.3 billion whole life market and a 0.9% share of the $2.4 billion term life market, said Moore, CEO of Wink and Moore Market Intelligence.

Based in Galveston, Texas, American National also held a 1.34% market share of the $427.7 billion market that is indexed annuities, she added.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.