In early December, we announced the release of our 2007 Retirement Income Products Study, the 8th annual report in this research series. The report includes findings from two separate, but complementary, research efforts: a survey of providers of retirement income products and solutions, and a series of in-depth interviews with executives who focus on the retirement income market.

Listed below are a few selected findings from that study:

• Product choices are beginning to broaden in the retirement income arena, as development efforts continue to extend the flexibility of GLBs and SPIAs, and as interest grows in the "alternative products" such as longevity insurance and annuities with long term care riders.
• Of the variable annuity companies surveyed, 77% offer at least one product with guaran-teed living benefit (GLB) features, with GMWBs dominating this market. Currently, 91% of survey respondents with GMWBs offer the lifetime income benefit option.
• Industry-wide sales of immediate variable annuity (IVA) products have reversed their downward trend for the first time in 5 years, despite the fact that only 9 out of 16 IVA providers are actively marketing their IVA product at this time.
• Most of the executives interviewed assert that annuitization should be a key element of most retirement income plans, and they believe these income payouts will most often be based on immediate fixed annuities.
• Most respondents project double-digit annual growth for GLB sales over the next few years, and they expect the most serious challenge to GLB sales in the near future will come from the evolution of mutual fund fea-tures to help provide retirement income solutions.

Companies will be seriously challenged to deter-mine how they can effectively compete in a mar-ket that is so rapidly evolving and continuously turning out such a broad array of products and solutions.DSG

The complete in-depth Report, which covers survey results, findings from the executive interviews, plus key observations and implications, is available for pur-chase by interested parties. For additional information about the 105-page Report, please contact Borden Ayers at (610) 989-1710, ext. 21 or by e-mail at
BordenA@DSG-Network.com

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