Challenger annuity sales up 22 per cent

Tim Stewart

17 August 2016

Annuity provider Challenger has benefited from its inclusion on superannuation industry platforms throughout 2016 to see sales rise by 22 per cent.

In the firm's annual results, posted on the ASX website yesterday, Challenger announced annuity sales of $3.4 billion in the past 12 months, up 22 per cent on the previous year.

Challenger signed a distribution deal with superannuation administration platform AAS in June 2015 and secured a place on Colonial First State's platforms in late 2014.

A distribution deal with industry fund Local Government Super was inked in July 2016, and Challenger said five more "annuity partnerships" will be launched in 2016-17.

Along with strong annuity sales, Challenger's 2015-16 result also saw the firm post a statutory profit of $328 million, up 10 per cent.

The fund manager has assets under management of $60 billion.

Challenger chief executive Brian Benari said annuity sales volume through the Colonial First State partnership had doubled in its first year.

Between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2016, 40 per cent of sales from platforms were lifetime annuities, he said.

"We are launching five new annuity partnerships in 1H17 including teaming up with Suncorp to white-label Challenger term and lifetime annuities," Mr Benari said.

"The bottom line is that more retirees are buying Challenger annuities because they better understand retirement risk and seek guidance from advisers who rate us highly and can access our products much more easily from a growing range of platforms."

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