Jackson National Life Insurance Co. of Lansing, Mich., said its first-half sales and deposits set a six-month record.
Sales and deposits for the unit of Prudential PLC of London rose 2% from a year earlier because of a 26% increase in institutional product sales and a 121% increase in sales of traditional fixed annuities, to $1.2 billion.
Clark Manning, Jackson National's president and chief executive, said retail mutual funds and product diversification — especially that resulting from the creation of Curian Capital, its managed account arm — were "keys to Jackson's sales success during the first half of 2008."
"In the face of declining equity markets and a challenging macroeconomic environment, our fixed annuity sales more than doubled, Curian deposits were up 7%, and we achieved double-digit year-over-year percentage increases in institutional product sales, life insurance sales, and retail mutual fund deposits," Mr. Manning said.
Jackson, which announced its results for the half last week, said operating income increased 7%, to $458 million.
Mr. Manning said the company's capital position remained strong during the first half. Its statutory capital ratio rose to 10.5%, from 10.4% a year earlier, and its statutory capital, surplus, and asset valuation reserve position increased by $1.2 million.
Sales of variable annuities fell 20.5%, to $3.5 billion, but the company generated the 12th most new variable annuity sales during the six months, according to Morningstar, and ranked fourth in industry variable annuity net flows.
In the first quarter, Jackson had the lowest variable annuity outflows as a percentage of variable annuity inflows in the industry, according to Morningstar.
Jackson sold more than $1.2 billion of fixed annuities in the first half, up from $572 million a year earlier. Sales of its fixed index annuities fell 11.8%, to $387 million.
Life insurance sales increased 22%, to $30 million, while sales of Jackson's institutional products rose 26%, to $1.6 billion.
Clifford Jack, Jackson's executive vice president and chief distribution officer, said: "There was a definite shift in customer demand from equity-based to fixed-income products in the first half of this year. Jackson's diversified product portfolio allows the company to offer its customers what they want, when they want it, and ultimately achieve sales success throughout all phases of the business cycle."
Jackson enhanced its variable annuity offering in the first half with the addition of two guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits and two portfolio investment options subadvised by PPM America Inc.
Jackson, which has assets of $84 billion overall, also came out with two fixed annuity products designed for the bank channel and a fixed index annuity that offers a selection of two market indexes and two contract lengths.
Curian Capital's deposits rose 7%, to $668 million. As of June 30, Curian had $3.4 billion of assets under management, about the same as it had at yearend 2007 total, as new deposits offset the decline in equity markets.
At National Planning Holdings Inc., Jackson's network of four independent broker-dealers, gross product sales rose 7% from a year earlier, to $7.4 billion, and revenue rose 10%, to $319 million.
National Planning's representative base grew by 7.3%, to 3,025.
