(Bloomberg News) MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, kept the top spot in variable-annuity sales in the third quarter as it cut rates and customers looked for a consistent return amid equity-market declines.
MetLife, based in New York, sold $8.56 billion of the retirement products, compared with $4.66 billion a year earlier, trade group Limra said today on its website. U.S. sales industrywide rose to $40.2 billion from $34.9 billion. It was the second straight period in which MetLife held the top spot, after Prudential Financial Inc. was No. 1 in the first quarter.
"Consumers' demand for guaranteed lifetime income helped sustain variable-annuity sales," Joseph Montminy, assistant vice president for Limra annuity research, said today in a statement. "The equity markets in the third quarter were the most volatile we have experienced since the financial crisis began in late 2008."
The Standard and Poor's 500 Index slipped 14 percent in the third quarter. MetLife's rate reduction this year caused a "fire-sale" effect in variable annuities, William Mullaney, president of the insurer's U.S. business, said in an earnings conference call Oct. 28.
MetLife fell less than 1 percent to $31.97 at 4:03 p.m. in New York and has declined 28 percent this year.
Prudential was second to MetLife in the third quarter, selling $4.48 billion of variable annuities, Limra said. That's down from $5.37 billion a year earlier. The second-biggest U.S. life insurer declined 2.8 percent to $51.90 in New York.
The top five sellers of variable annuities accounted for 56.3 percent of sales industrywide in the first nine months of the year, up from 54.6 percent a year earlier.
Jackson National Life Insurance Co. was the No. 3 variable annuity seller in the third quarter, followed by TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co. and Lincoln National Corp., according to Limra.