Life Insurance and Annuity Providers Score High Marks from Financial Pros, but Lag on User Friendliness, JD Power Finds

Pacific Life Ranks Highest among Life Insurance Distribution Partners, Corebridge Financial Ranks Highest among Annuity Distribution Partners

• Customer satisfaction is high among financial advisors, insurance agents and bankers for their life insurance and annuity partners
• Despite high levels of overall satisfaction, many financial professionals say working with life insurance and annuity partners can require more effort than they’d like
• Satisfaction plummets when financial professionals experience challenges with life insurance and annuity partner digital portals

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Life insurance¹ and annuity products² are experiencing rising demand as a combination of market and demographic trends push more financial advisors, insurance brokers and bankers to talk to their clients about the possibility of outliving their savings and the need to protect their families from unexpected events. For the most part, the companies that create and support these products are doing a good job of delivering on key relationship needs for financial professionals, with most receiving high satisfaction marks in the inaugural JD Power Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study,^SM released today. While life insurance and annuity distribution partners perform well on the fundamentals, many still have opportunities to improve the level of user-friendly service they offer to financial professionals.

“The two most valuable commodities of financial professionals are their time and reputations, so when it comes to working with life insurance and annuity partners, they place an enormously high value on trust and ease of interaction," said Craig Martin, executive director, global insurance intelligence at JD Power. “While many life insurance and annuity brands have built strong reputations and deliver reliable service to financial professionals and their clients, one area for improvement is user friendliness. Many providers come up short on self-service capabilities and have processes that can be time-consuming and seem antiquated.”

Following are some key findings of the 2026 study:

• Strong performance on overall customer satisfaction: The average overall satisfaction score for life insurance distribution partners is 743 (on a 1,000-point scale) and the average overall satisfaction score for annuity distribution partners is 742. These compare with overall scores of 664 for independent insurance agent satisfaction with personal lines insurers³ and 629 for independent financial advisor satisfaction with wealth management firms⁴.
• Room to improve on ease of interaction: Financial professionals consistently cite having a partner who is easy to work with as one of their top priorities. Brand loyalty rates are 78% among life insurance partners and 71% among annuity partners who say their partners are very easy to work with. Still, fewer than half (40%) of financial professionals say their life insurance and annuity partners are very easy to work with.

• More self-service capabilities needed: Almost one-third (31%) of financial professionals indicate that the balance between self-service and live support required to work with their life insurance and annuity partners is sub-optimal, with 20% of professionals suggesting their annuity providers need to provide better self-service capabilities.

• Digital engagement is critical: Most life insurance and annuity partners offer well-designed digital portals, with 71% of financial professionals rating their life insurance and annuity partners’ portal experiences as excellent. For the 29% of financial professionals who say their provider portals fall short, average overall satisfaction scores decline by more than 200 points.

Study Rankings

Pacific Life ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with life insurance distribution partners, with a score of 768. Guardian Life (761) ranks second and Allianz (760) ranks third.

Corebridge Financial ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with annuity distribution partners, with a score of 765. Security Benefit (764) ranks second and Symetra (754) ranks third.

To access the official release and complete visual rank charts, visit: http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2026012.

The Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study evaluates the experiences of financial advisors, insurance agents and banking professionals who sell products for the nation’s largest life insurance and annuity distribution companies across six dimensions (in alphabetical order): business support; compensation; ease of doing business; operational support; product competitiveness; and service to clients. This year’s study is based on 2,860 evaluations of life insurance distribution partners and 3,010 evaluations of annuity distribution partners and was fielded from October–December 2025.

For more information about the Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/life-annuity-distribution-partner-experience-study.

About JD Power

JD Power delivers mission-critical data, analytics and intelligence that help businesses improve customer experience and operational performance with confidence and clarity. Using proprietary, comprehensive data–including millions of consumer interactions and authoritative automotive datasets–combined with advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and deep industry expertise, JD Power enables leaders to respond to market shifts, make smarter decisions and drive measurable performance improvements.

As an objective source of deep insight into real-world customer interactions with brands and products, JD Power provides the independent intelligence organizations need to anticipate change, strengthen customer engagement and advance growth. Learn more at JDPower.com.

About JD Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305123489/en/

Media Relations Contacts

Joe LaMuraglia, JD Power; East Coast; 714-621-6224; [email protected]
John Roderick; East Coast; 631-584-2200; [email protected]

Source: JD Power