US annuity sales totalled $107.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 1% from a year earlier and the latest in a sustained run of quarterly sales above $100 billion, according to LIMRA’s US Individual Annuity Sales Survey. The figures build on a record 2025, when full-year annuity sales rose 7% to $464.1 billion – the fourth consecutive annual record. Yet as the industry marks Annuity Awareness Month, LIMRA and LOMA’s chief marketing officer argues the gap between retirement need and actual adoption has less to do with product design or market conditions than with how the products are presented and understood.
Annuity demand surges, yet consumers stay wary
