
Annuity Trends
May 2019: What Will the Fed Do Next?
Annuity rates have held steady this month. After several consecutive months of Treasury Bond declines, things leveled off in April.
In response to a decline in bond yields, many insurers reduced annuity rates this month, but top fixed annuity rates have held steady. Lincoln Financial increased longevity annuity rates, but all other carriers have reduced rates. Sentiment has shifted from believing the Federal Reserve would not change rates any time soon to conventional wisdom now being that there could be two rate cuts this year.
Most insurers decreased their immediate annuity, longevity annuity and fixed annuity rates last month, in response to lower bond yields. Click to download June 2019’s Annuity Intelligence Report.
Although rates are down across the board, this may actually be a good time to consider a fixed annuity purchase. In this article, I show that the top 5 year fixed annuity rate’s spread over 5 year Treasuries has increased significantly over the last 6 months.
There has been a meaningful shift in market sentiment over the last week. Read our article here to learn more about what has been happening and what may be in store for the remainder of this year.
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Annuity rates have held steady this month. After several consecutive months of Treasury Bond declines, things leveled off in April.
There were steep declines in longer-term Treasury yields in March, largely precipitated by the Fed’s comments that they were less likely than previously assumed to raise rates this year, next year, and even in 2021.
Although top fixed annuity rates held steady in February, many insurers decreased their rates.