MassMutual Ascend, the Cincinnati-based subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., has crossed the $2 billion mark in lifetime sales of advisory annuities, a milestone that underscores the accelerating acceptance of guaranteed income products among registered investment advisors.
The company said the sales were generated through relationships with more than 1,700 investment advisor representatives at nearly 1,000 RIAs. Notably, roughly $900 million of that total—about 45%—was booked in 2025 and 2026 alone, according to the insurer.
Joe Maringer, senior vice president and national sales manager at MassMutual Ascend, attributed the growth to a decade-long effort to tailor products for the fee-based channel. "Ten years ago, we entered this space with the belief that annuities would become an increasingly important part of advisors' retirement planning conversations," he said in a statement. "This milestone is evidence of that momentum."
The company traces its advisory push to 2016, when it launched what it describes as the industry's first advisory fixed-indexed annuity, designed specifically for advisors operating under a fee-based, rather than commission-based, model. Since then, MassMutual Ascend has expanded its lineup to include fixed, fixed-indexed, and registered index-linked annuities, aiming to serve a fiduciary channel that has historically been wary of insurance products.
According to LIMRA, MassMutual Ascend has ranked as the top provider in advisory fixed-indexed annuity sales for eight consecutive quarters. The broader market has also seen record demand: second-quarter 2026 annuity sales hit a record $123.9 billion, driven by economic uncertainty and shifting rate expectations.
The appeal of annuities in fee-based portfolios rests on the ability to generate more guaranteed lifetime income per dollar than comparable fixed-income allocations, thanks to risk pooling across a large policyholder base. Large asset managers such as BlackRock and State Street have begun incorporating annuities into target-date funds, a development that David Lau, founder and CEO of DPL Financial, said validates the category. "When these asset managers are acknowledging that fact and bringing annuities in for income and in their own products, that has to speak to the individual advisors and firms who think they can do it themselves," Lau previously told InvestmentNews.
Belle Bielawska, national key account manager at MassMutual Ascend, framed the shift as a change in how advisors and clients view the products. "As retirement challenges become more complex, we're seeing greater appreciation for the role modern annuities can play and the unique outcomes they're designed to deliver, like defined protection and contractual income, which can be difficult to replicate elsewhere," she said in a written statement.
Despite the momentum, barriers remain. Implementation bottlenecks, the historical lack of fee-based options, and product complexity continue to temper advisor comfort. Matt Clifford, a former Pacific Life annuities strategy leader who now consults, noted a mismatch between carrier product design and RIA planning approaches. "Carriers frequently adjust product design and sales capacity to align with shifting economic conditions, capital markets, and internal risk or return objectives," he said in a LinkedIn note. "Over the past two decades, this has driven notable shifts in product focus."
After the 2008 financial crisis, low rates and tighter capital requirements pushed carriers away from variable annuities with guaranteed living benefits toward more capital-efficient fixed products. As rates rose sharply in 2022 and 2023, carriers leaned into multi-year guaranteed annuities and fixed-indexed annuities, which offered competitive yields and favorable spread economics. Clifford argued that these shifts create friction for RIAs, who "tend to take a longer-term, more stable view of portfolio construction and client strategy." He advised carriers to align product development with core financial planning principles and demonstrate commitment across market cycles.
