VARIABLE ANNUITIES:

More Annuities Used in Income Portfolios (Investment Advisor) - Advisors are increasingly turning to annuities to help cover their clients’ basic needs in retirement.

Quiz question: What’s up with variable annuity riders? (National Underwriter Life & Health) - This answers the question: Which of the following best depicts what is happening to the popular variable annuity guaranteed benefit riders in 2009? The question shows 5 possible answers.

Long Derided, Investment Looks Wise (WSJ.com: Personal Journal) - Thanks to their guarantees, pricey variable annuities rose when stocks tanked.

VA Targets Guarantee Needs (National Underwriter Life & Health)- Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company has designed its new flexible-premium variable annuity to address individual and family need for guaranteed retirement income.

VA Targets Older Bank Clients (National Underwriter Life & Health) - A new variable annuity from MetLife Inc. is designed with older bank customers in mind.

Variable Annuity Investors Celebrate Guarantees (MMExecutive) - The “long derided” investment did well by investors in the downturn.

MetLife Bucks Market Trend with a New Variable Annuity (MMExecutive) - Simplified version expected to be easier to sell and to appeal to a broader customer base.

NAVA is now the Insured Retirement Institute(Investment News) - Newly branded group changes its focus from promoting variable annuities to acting as a resource for advisers

1Q Variable Life Sales Off 55.7% From Last Year (National Underwriter Life & Health)

FIXED and INDEX ANNUITIES

Fixed Annuity Sales Soar 74% in First Quarter (MMExecutive) - But with rates so low, now is not an opportune time to be making the investment.

Fixed annuities — for the faint of heart (Bank Advisor Magazine) - Who'd have thought fixed annuities would take over as one of the most popular products on the market?

Fewer fixed annuities, lower rates: July 2009 (National Underwriter Life & Health) - This chart from Fisher Annuity Index shows interest rate trends for fixed annuities as of July 2009.

Did you know: Index annuities in flux (National Underwriter Life & Health) - This is a brief summary of fixed and variable annuity trends.

At a glance: Quarterly fixed annuity sales results (National Underwriter Life & Health) - The chart from Beacon Research, Evanston Ill., shows quarterly sales sresults for fixed annuities from January 2003 through April 2009.

SEC Ordered to Reconsider Annuity Rule (Investment Advisor) - Finding on July 21 that the SEC had "failed to properly consider the effect of the rule upon efficiency, competition and capital formation," the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia told the SEC to reconsider Rule 151A.

Top story: Experts foresee changes to fixed indexed annuities after court ruling on 151A (National Underwriter Life & Health) - Experts tell how fixed indexed annuities might change in the wake of the July 21, 2009 federal appeals court decision remanding the Security and Exchange Commission’s Rule 151A back to the SEC.