A LIMRA analyst sees strong demand for small and midsize deals.

U.S. life insurers reported a small drop in pension plan buyout annuity sales in the third quarter.

Pension risk transfer sales fell to $6.3 billion, down from $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2017, according to survey data from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

The institute bases the survey results on data from 16 companies that share information about their sales of large, single-premium group annuity contracts.

Pension risk transfer volume reached a six-year high of about $35 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Since then, volume has been under $1 billion in many quarters, and over $5 billion in many quarters.

Volume reached a five-year high of $11 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Wayne Daniel, an executive at MetLife, predicted in June that employers would transfer a total of about $20 billion in pension risk this year.

Employers have reported about $16 billion in pension risk transfer transactions so far this year, according to the new survey data.

Eugene Noble, an analyst at the retirement institute, said in a statement about the results that year-to-date sales are up 33% from what they were for the first three quarters of 2017.

“We expect sales to exceed $23 billion for this year,” Noble said.

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