Research

Advisors report their typical clients with variable annuities have, on average, $1.7 million in assets, are 55 years of age and have an average of 13% of their assets in variable annuities.

Advisors still do not believe the DOL fiduciary rule will impact their use of variable annuities.

Advisors are largely divided on how they expect their use of variable annuities to change over the next five years.

On average, advisors report that 25% of client assets are in variable annuities.

While the top factor was consistent across all industry channels, there were some differences in the relative importance of other factors.

High fees remain the most common limiting factor to the use of variable annuities—six out of 10 advisors (61%) agreed that high fees limited their use of the product.

Retirement income planning was the most commonly cited objective for the use of variable annuities in client portfolios.

Among advisors from independent firms, investment-only variable annuities were more popular than deferred annuities.

It appears that advisors who frequently use variable annuities are less likely to use cash holdings in their client portfolios.