Aviva plc: Worldwide long-term savings new business – 12 months to 31 December 2006
United States:
Life and pension sales increased by 70% to £884 million (2005: £527 million).
Life and pension sales in Aviva’s long-established operations based in Boston, increased by 7% to £560m (2005: £527 million). Structured settlement products showed strong growth following the A.M. Best rating upgrade to A+ in November 2005. Fixed index annuity sales increased by 132% to £62 million (2005: £27 million).
Sales from AmerUs, amounted to £324 million in the six weeks following acquisition on 15 November 2006, and AmerUs reported record sales for life and annuity products for the fourth quarter. Consumer demand for its fixed index life and annuity products remains strong.
Full year sales from AmerUs were £2,261 million (2005: £1,882 million), including £330 million of funding agreement sales (2005: £38 million) in the second, third and fourth quarters. This strong performance represented 21% year on year growth compared with 2005. Funding agreement sales are by their nature opportunistic and can vary significantly quarter on quarter. Excluding the impact of these funding agreements, sales of the underlying life and annuity products continued to show strong quarter on quarter growth throughout 2006. An analysis of AmerUs sales on a PVNBP basis by quarter for 2006 and 2005 is given in the ‘Notes to editor’.
