Almost half of financial planning professionals say they bring up variable annuities in “every conversation” with their clients, according to a new survey.

The Hartford’s decision to leave the individual annuity market doesn’t mean the insured retirement industry is struggling, according to the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI).

Annuity sales in 2011 grew 7.7%, fueled in large part by a 28% increase in net variable-annuity sales during the year.

Annuity sales are being influence by increasing emotion and a desire by buyers to secure their retirement, not accumulate wealth, a new report finds.

The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will increase 3.6% for Social Security beneficiaries in 2012, affecting more than 60 million consumers, although an insurance trade group says most will not see the full COLA.

The annuity industry ended last year on “strong and secure footing,” where variable annuity assets reached an all-time high and fourth quarter sales showed the highest levels of last year, a report showed.

The chairman of a National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) committee compared stranger-originated annuity transactions (STATs) to cockroaches, while others suggested the need for tighter regulation of the growing practice.

The friction between investors looking for opportunities and insurance companies whose products inadvertently provide those opportunities is forcing a hard look at stranger-originated annuity transactions (STATs), according to an industry expert.

National Retirement Planning Week, designed to coincide with Financial Literacy Month, is scheduled for April 12 to April 15, as various organizations schedule outreach efforts designed to raise public awareness to the need to comprehensively plan for retirement.

Five industry groups have co-authored a letter to Washington, D.C., urging congressional leadership to reconsider a provision in the new health reform reconciliation package that would enact a 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on annuities.