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Annuities Research

Digging into the Customer Experience: Annuities

Corporate Insight’s Annuity Monitor keeps clients on top of developments in the annuity business. Our value-added annuities research digs deeply to identify and assess specific aspects not only of the customer experience, but also the ways in which leading insurers market their annuity products to independent financial advisors.

Optional Benefit Rider Positioning PDF Print E-mail
Optional benefit riders have increased attractiveness of several annuity products in recent years, offering clients with additional guarantees in volatile financial markets. This same volatility has unfortunately handcuffed some firms and forced many to suspend the sales of new riders. In this Annuity Monitor report, we focus on the positioning of optional benefit riders across the public and advisor sites.

This Annuity Monitor report focuses on the positioning and promotion of optional benefit riders on the coverage firms’ public and advisor websites. Fourteen firms that have consistently offered optional benefit rider information and accompanying resources were selected for evaluation on three key criteria:
  • Accessibility of optional benefit riders information
  • Quality and depth of optional benefit rider product information
  • Optional benefit rider promotional materials
The majority of Annuity Monitor firms are currently providing public and advisor site users with information concerning optional benefit riders – 65% to be exact. Of those firms, only four are currently utilizing promotional resources to illustrate the key features of optional benefit riders. Given these statistics, we were surprised to find that a substantial amount of firms, over 70%, offer standalone pages dedicated to optional benefit riders.
 
For both prospective clients and financial professionals, educational videos serve as an excellent medium for conveying key product information and features. Currently only six firms provide such videos that focus on optional rider products. Another key component to optional benefit rider positioning are downloadable product brochures, which are offered by 10 firms covered in this report. Product comparison charts serve as another useful resource for illustrating product features and fee disclosures and are currently offered by only four Annuity Monitor firms.
 
Additional key findings include:
  • Three firms provide quicklinks to riders on the public or advisor homepages.
  • Fee information and disclosures are provided by 11 coverage firms.
  • 29% of firms utilize optional benefit rider comparison charts.
  • Eleven firms offer links to benefit rider information directly on annuity product pages.
 
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