QUOTABLE

are the greatest MYGA sales have been since Wink began tracking sales of the products in 2015.

“We’re excited for the future of this industry,” said Ryan Lex, executive vice president and chief distribution officer at Ibexis. “What we saw in 2022 was nothing short of amazing. The entire annuity space right now is on fire in a good way.”

TEXAS PLAINTIFFS: LINCOLN ANNUITY DID NOT PERFORM TO ILLUSTRATIONS

A group of nine Texas plaintiffs claim they were misled by the illustrations for a fixed indexed annuity sold by Lincoln Financial. The group seeks class-action status for their lawsuit filed in federal court.

Plaintiffs say they signed a fixed indexed annuity contract with Lincoln in February 2020 expecting the consistent 6% gains illustrations showed. FIAs are popular with consumers because the 0% floor means they cannot lose money.

The FIA was tied to the 1-Year Fidelity AIM Dividend Participation Index. The plaintiffs say their actual returns were zero or near-zero for several years.

The lawsuit further claims that plaintiffs’ funds were moved out of the index and into Treasury securities after the market collapsed briefly in March 2020. The market rebounded quickly from that COVID-19-influenced setback and exceeded a 16% return by the end of 2020.

Lincoln did not respond to a request for comment.

Myga Sales Through The Roof

Nearly all annuity lines are selling well, but one stands out above the others: multi-year guaranteed annuities.

MYGA sales more than doubled between 2021 and 2022. Experts point to the combination of a record-breaking drop in the bond market and the worst equity performance since 2008 with a rising interest rate environment.

Fourth-quarter sales were up 29.6% when compared to the previous quarter, and up 216.8% when compared to the same period, last year, Wink reported. MYGAs have a fixed rate guaranteed for more than one year.

Total 2022 MYGA sales were $103.7 billion, an increase of 105.5% from the previous year. This quarter and this year

DEFIANT ‘ANNUITY KING’ GOES ON TRIAL IN FLORIDA

The criminal trial of the Florida-based, self-styled “Annuity King,” Phillip Roy Wasserman, charged with annuity fraud and running a Ponzi scheme, was expected to continue into May.

Wasserman told InsuranceNewsNet that his defense team submitted a witness list of 104 names and they expect to call about 60 to testify. Wasserman was initially indicted in June 2020, but the government filed a superseding indictment in November of that year. Prosecutors allege that Wasserman led a $6.3 million financial fraud.

The three most serious charges – wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud – all carry maximum sentences of 20 years. Wasserman maintains his complete innocence.

“We have absolute proof that the government misrepresented the numbers, but even if you take their numbers at face value, the case is a joke,” he said via email.