"Advisors are feeling they can do a fine enough job generating retirment income using these more liquid or easier accessible products that are fee based," she said.
That means that if annuity providers hope to meet investor demand for retirement income, they will have to modify their products and their "out-dated" sales practices, York said.
Part of that will have to involve products that are fee-based, with more fee transparency and more flexibility in terms of liquidity, she said.
"They need to appeal to this need for a different type of compensation structure," she said.
The online survey, conducted for Escalent in August by Cogent Syndicated, received responses from 469 financial advisors with books of business of at least $5 million and 3,054 investors with investable assets of $100,000 or more.