Insurers Find In-Plan Annuities More Appealing in Current Market, per Goldman Sachs

As insurers remain cautious about near-term market volatility, they nevertheless show growing interest in in-plan annuities, according to a recent Goldman Sachs Asset Management survey. 

According to Goldman Sachs’ 2026 Annuity Industry survey, responding insurers said they continued to invest in product development and platform expansion, and were not pulling back because of recession or volatility concerns. 

The survey found a slight decrease in insurers’ macroeconomic concerns. While 68% cited a potential recession as the greatest macroeconomic risk to business in the coming year, it fell from 76% of respondents last year. Similarly, 57% of respondents cited credit and equity market volatility as the greatest risk, down from 66% last year.  

However, other concerns are gaining ground. Notably, 38% of this year’s surveyed insurers cited credit and equity valuations as a top risk, compared with none a year earlier. 

“In every environment, annuity carriers are really thinking about what the best outcome is in terms of product design and matching that with the prevailing macroeconomic environment,” says Marci Green, head of retirement distribution and third-party insurance at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “They’re trying to figure out how to create the most innovative products for consumers.” 

Insurance carriers reported seeing growing opportunities to bring guaranteed retirement income into workplace retirement plans and adviser-managed accounts. According to survey findings, insurers expected adoption of in-plan annuities, fee-based annuity advice and artificial intelligence-powered investor education to accelerate over the next several years. 

Rise in RILAs, In-Plan Annuities  

According to the survey, 79% of insurers identified generating guaranteed income throughout retirement as retirees’ leading objective, a finding mirrored in another Goldman Sachs survey of plan participants published September. 

“From our [separate] retirement survey, 83% of participants say they want some form of guaranteed income, which really highlights the broad appeal of these solutions,” says Green. “The next phase of retirement income is not about inventing another product. It’s really about access and adoption.”  

When surveyed insurers were asked what they anticipated to be the most significant annuities trend, 58% expected registered index-linked annuities to be the fastest-growing annuity product by sales in the next year. Twenty percent expected RILAs to lead sales for the next three years.   

According to the survey, RILAs have driven significant industry momentum, surpassing last year’s $79.6 billion in sales and projected to exceed $85 billion this year.  

While RILAs continue to drive near-term retail market growth with sales volumes, defined contribution plans are moving more in the direction of embedded in-plan solutions.  

Asked how much insurers prioritized the in-plan retirement income space for their annuity efforts, 31% of respondents said it was within their top three priorities and 16% said it was a top priority.  

For researchers, insurers’ opinions on in-plan annuities were especially notable. Fifteen percent of respondents said they expected in-plan annuities to be a major industry trend over the next three years, compared with 5% who saw it as a major trend in the upcoming year. 

“In-plan annuities have reached a turning point,” says Green. “There is a structural shift on the in-plan side, from product design to in-plan access, defaults and adoption.”  

However, major hurdles were preventing widespread adoption, with 77% of insurers citing a lack of plan participant education or advice, as well as perceived complexity and 47% citing a plan sponsors’ lack of interest or apprehension about being early adopters.  

What Insurers Offer 

When insurers were asked if they provided annuities as retirement income solutions, 67% said they offered out-of-plan annuities as a standalone retirement product. Thirty-six percent of insurers said they offered in-plan annuities as a standalone product and 8% were in the process of implementing it.  

Additionally, 27% said they offered an integration of annuities into managed accounts, 9% were considering it and 30% said they did not offer it but considered implementing it.  

Asked which annuity would have the greatest impact for retirement plan solutions in the next five years, 34% of insurers chose the out-of-plan annuity offering as a standalone retirement product, followed by 29% citing the integration of annuities into managed accounts.  

“I do believe that [managed accounts] will become one of the most prevalent delivery mechanisms for annuities,” says Green. “The ‘why’ really comes down to the need for planning and making sure that plan participants, the actual users of these annuities, understand how they fit to drive adoption.” 

According to Goldman Sachs, managed accounts and personalization are expected to play a central role in the adoption of annuities within 401(k) plans. 

“Managed accounts with a more personalized approach and … emerging AI tools that … help with participant education will actually drive more adoption,” says Green. “It’s going to translate these complex annuity features into very customized life-spending plans.” 

Insurance carriers echoed this finding, as they increasingly saw advisers and managed account providers—rather than product manufacturers alone—as critical to expanding retirement income adoption.  

The survey was conducted this summer with more than 100 professionals with an average of more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. Respondents came from 28 insurance companies, representing over $1 trillion in annuity assets.