John Carroll Interview, Part I: Products have changed a lot in 40 years

The life insurance industry was a lot more vanilla when John Carroll first joined it in the early 1990s.

Carroll, senior vice president and head of insurance and annuities for LIMRA, began as an annuity seller for Merrill Lynch, eventually leading campaigns and designing marketing materials. His product suites did not stray far from the basics. Indexed products were still in the future.

But change came. Life insurance and annuity product innovation moved relatively swiftly as Carroll climbed into the executive ranks.

The industry 'goes through tremendous change'

“People think about the insurance industry as a very staid, never-changing industry, and it’s so not,” he said. “It goes through tremendous change.”

Carroll spent 20 years at Merrill, rising to lead sales and distribution teams. By the time he departed in 2008, the financial crisis had sent consumers scrambling for fixed products. The industry-leading variable annuities continued selling well for a few more years before beginning a steady decline.

Indexed products quickly proved popular. Transamerica introduced the first indexed universal life insurance product in 1997, and, albeit with attendant controversy, IUL continues to sell strongly today.

What were introduced as “equity-linked” annuities in the mid-1990s were rebranded as indexed annuities by the time Carroll moved on to Allianz Global Distributors. He would spend eight years with Allianz, a time that coincided with the introduction of registered index-linked annuities.

RILAs capture a sweet spot

Also known as structured or buffered annuities, RILAs captured the sweet spot between market exposure and the safety zone. Consumers remain very comfortable buying RILAs in ever-larger numbers as more annuity sellers jump into the market.

Carroll is finishing up his career as senior vice president and head of insurance and annuities for LIMRA. Retirement is set for June after five years with the organization.

Carroll sat down with InsuranceNewsNet for a lengthy interview during the April Life Insurance and Annuity Conference in New Orleans. The interview will run in three installments. Part one features Carroll discussing his career and how products have evolved over four decades.

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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 john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.