LIMRA's final Q2 tally slips, with fixed-rate deferred carrying the miss

The final read on second-quarter annuity sales arrived Tuesday at $121.2 billion, below the $123.9 billion preliminary figure that went out in August as a record, and the product that carried the sales boom was the one that shrank most when the sample widened. The completed U.S. Individual Annuity Sales Survey covers 93% of the market, up from 84% for the preliminary cut, and that wider sample produced the smaller number, which is worth remembering the next time a mid-quarter record lands.

The revision was a fixed-rate deferred story, and a bigger one than the headline: that line finished the quarter at $41.8 billion after a $44.7 billion estimate a month earlier, a $2.9 billion miss larger on its own than the $2.7 billion taken off the industry total. That implies at least one other product line was marked up in the final pass, though the release does not say which. RILA sales matched their projection at $23.3 billion, fixed indexed annuities came in $100 million light at $30.6 billion, and traditional variable annuities were $200 million off at $17.7 billion, while year to date the industry stands at $228.7 billion against an expected $231.3 billion.

The half-year comparisons carry more weight than the quarterly wobble. Fixed-rate deferred sales reached $77.4 billion in the first six months, 10% below the same stretch of 2025, while RILA sales were $44.4 billion, up 21% from the first half of last year and 11% within the second quarter alone.

LIMRA's head of annuity research, Keith Golembiewski, describes a product whose bid rose and fell with the quarter's mood: crediting rates climbed and demand rose with them, then volatility subsided and the flight to safety went with it. Bryan Hodgens, LIMRA's head of research, credits global tensions, record equity performance and rising rates with lifting every major product line off the first quarter.

The final survey captures a mix rotating from a rate trade to a volatility trade. The 11th consecutive quarter above $100 billion in sales and the 2% year-over-year gain LIMRA reports are real, but the marginal dollar is moving toward RILA, which sells protection against a downturn rather than yield from a high one. That makes the 21% first-half gain less durable than the headline suggests, and it leaves the industry's growth dependent on investors staying nervous about equities while those equities set records. Watch the third-quarter fixed-rate deferred line: another double-digit year-over-year decline would leave the $100 billion floor resting on products that pay off when markets fall.