Quarterly sales results and product news. - Pete

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Sales results:

LIMRA: Total Annuity Sales Drop (Life & Health) - Individual annuity sales fell to about $55 billion in the third quarter, down 17% from the total for the third quarter of 2008.

Beacon: Indexed Annuity Sales Fall (National Underwriter Life & Health) - U.S. sales of indexed annuities fell to about $22 billion in the third quarter, down 21% from the total for the third quarter of 2008.

US Fixed Annuity Sales Slump In Third Quarter (FA Mag) - As the stock market shows signs of recovery and fears of increased inflation mount, older investors and retirees who turned to fixed annuities are looking elsewhere.

Fixed Annuity Sales Down For Quarter, Up For 9 Months (FA Mag) - U.S. fixed annuity sales were down 21% in the third quarter but up 18% for the first nine months of the year, a new study reports.

Variable Annuity Sales Decline for Sixth Quarter (Bloomberg)

Bank Annuity Sales Continue to Slide (On Wall Street) - Bank annuity sales fell for the fifth consecutive quarter between July and September, according to preliminary estimates released by Kehrer-LIMRA.

Annuity Assets Regain Pre-Crisis Levels (NAVA Advisors) - After Five Quarters of Decline in Comparison to Prior Years, Assets Post Year-to-Year Increase

Aviva cracks top five of indexed annuity sellers (Investment News)

Product news:

Phoenix IAs Offer 3 GMWB Riders, 5 Index Options (National Underwriter Life & Health) - Two new fixed indexed annuity products are each offering a choice of three guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit riders and five indexed account options.

Lincoln Financial Group Launches Lincoln MYGuarantee(SM) Plus Fixed Annuity (PRNewswire)

Top Story: The deferred income annuity is a hybrid worth considering (National Underwriter Life & Health) - A deferred income annuity guarantees a future income stream and can be bought at a fraction of the cost of a single premium immediate annuity. These have market appeal for several reasons.

Phoenix Offers Two Simplified Fixed Annuities (MMExecutive) - The single-premium annuities offer three optional guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit riders.

Advantage: Index Annuities Are Looking Good (Life & Health - Index Annuities) - During the 5-year period that ended Sept. 30, index annuities produced higher returns than bank certificates of deposit, and a much higher return than a typical S&P 500 index fund.