Demand for life insurance and annuity products is increasing as financial professionals address concerns about longevity and financial protection. A new JD Power Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study reports that financial advisors, insurance brokers, and banking professionals generally rate their life insurance and annuity partners highly. However, the study also finds that providers have opportunities to improve the user-friendliness of their services, particularly in digital tools and self-service capabilities.

The study, released March 5, 2026, evaluates how financial professionals interact with companies that create and support life insurance and annuity products. Overall, the results show high levels of satisfaction. At the same time, many professionals say working with these partners still requires more effort than it should.

Demand for Life Insurance and Annuities Continues to Rise

Market and demographic trends are encouraging financial professionals to discuss long-term financial security with their clients more frequently. Advisors are addressing the possibility that clients may outlive their savings and are helping families prepare for unexpected events.

Research from LIMRA reflects this trend. The organization forecasts growth in individual life insurance premiums in 2026 and reports that the outlook for annuity sales remains strong.

Financial Professionals Report High Satisfaction

Financial professionals report high satisfaction levels with their life insurance and annuity distribution partners.

The average overall satisfaction score for life insurance distribution partners is 743 out of 1,000. The average score for annuity distribution partners is 742.

These scores are higher than those reported in some other financial services relationships. For example, the JD Power 2025 U.S. Independent Agent Satisfaction Study recorded a score of 664 for independent agents working with personal lines insurers. Meanwhile, the JD Power 2025 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study reported a score of 629 for independent financial advisors working with wealth management firms.

Ease of Doing Business Remains an Issue

Although satisfaction scores are strong, financial professionals still report challenges when interacting with some providers.

Craig Martin, executive director of global insurance intelligence at JD Power, said financial professionals place a high value on trust and efficiency because their time and professional reputations are critical to their work. While many life insurance and annuity providers have strong reputations and offer reliable service, Martin noted that some providers still lack user-friendly processes and strong self-service capabilities.

Ease of interaction strongly influences loyalty. Among professionals who say their life insurance partners are very easy to work with, loyalty rates reach 78%. Loyalty reaches 71% among annuity partners with the same rating.

However, fewer than half of financial professionals, or 40%, say their life insurance and annuity partners are very easy to work with.

Self-Service and Digital Tools Affect Satisfaction

The study also finds that self-service capabilities remain a concern for many financial professionals.

Nearly 31% say the balance between self-service tools and live support is not ideal when working with life insurance and annuity partners. In addition, 20% of professionals say annuity providers should offer better self-service options.

Digital portals also significantly affect satisfaction levels. Most financial professionals report positive experiences, with 71% rating their provider portals as excellent.

However, satisfaction declines significantly when those portals fall short. For the 29% of professionals who say their provider portals do not meet expectations, overall satisfaction scores drop by more than 200 points.

Study Rankings

Pacific Life ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction among life insurance distribution partners with a score of 768. Guardian Life ranks second with a score of 761, followed by Allianz with 760.

Corebridge Financial ranks highest among annuity distribution partners with a score of 765. Security Benefit ranks second with a score of 764, and Symetra ranks third with a score of 754.

Study Methodology

The Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study evaluates the experiences of financial advisors, insurance agents, and banking professionals who sell products from the nation’s largest life insurance and annuity distribution companies.

The study measures six dimensions: business support, compensation, ease of doing business, operational support, product competitiveness, and service to clients.

Researchers collected 2,860 evaluations of life insurance distribution partners and 3,010 evaluations of annuity distribution partners. The study was fielded from October through December 2025.

About JD Power

JD Power provides data, analytics, and intelligence designed to help businesses improve customer experience and operational performance. The company combines proprietary data, consumer interaction data, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and industry expertise to analyze market trends and customer behavior.

As an independent source of insight into real-world customer interactions with brands and products, JD Power provides organizations with information they can use to respond to market changes, strengthen customer engagement, and support growth. More information is available at JDPower.com.

Regulatory pressure is becoming a central factor shaping the insurtech sector as it continues to mature. According to an article published in FinTech Global, compliance, transparency, and capital discipline are emerging as defining forces influencing innovation and operational strategy across the industry in 2026.

The article draws on perspectives from several leaders in the insurtech ecosystem, who identified governance, regulatory frameworks and capital requirements as key challenges shaping the year ahead.

Governance Built Into Technology Systems

Simha Sadasiva, co-founder and CEO of Ushur, said regulatory readiness must be integrated directly into technology architecture rather than addressed solely through compliance teams.

“Compliance, data privacy, and how you underwrite risk and interact with customers are all key governance pillars in insurance,” Sadasiva said in the FinTech Global article.

Sadasiva explained that insurers should embed governance safeguards directly into their technology stacks. These safeguards can include deterministic risk prediction models, detailed audit trails that document how automated decisions are made and fallback mechanisms that ensure human involvement when necessary.

According to Sadasiva, regulated industries require systems that are verifiable and auditable. As regulatory scrutiny increases, the ability to demonstrate that technology systems are trustworthy, traceable, and controllable has become increasingly important when working with enterprise clients.

AI Governance and Transparency Requirements

The FinTech Global article also identified artificial intelligence governance as a major regulatory focus area for insurers.

Ido Deutsch, chief revenue officer at Producerflow, said insurers must address governance requirements related to data privacy, model management, and risk oversight when deploying AI systems.

“With AI, there is a lot of governance required around data privacy, managing models and understanding risk,” Deutsch said in the article. “Many of these models are almost like black boxes.”

Deutsch explained that the complexity of many AI models can create challenges for insurers operating in regulated markets where decision-making must be transparent and explainable.

To address this issue, insurers may need to ensure that automated processes remain auditable and that the rationale behind automated decisions is clearly documented.

Deutsch said insurers are likely to adopt hybrid operating models in which automation manages many backend processes while human oversight remains part of regulated decision-making.

“Humans will have to be in all those processes, maybe fewer humans, but doing different things,” he said.

Capital Regulation and IFRS 17 Challenges

While technology governance is an important focus, the FinTech Global article also highlighted capital regulation as a structural challenge for insurers.

Yasser Rajwani, product manager at Earnix, pointed to solvency requirements and IFRS 17 as areas where regulatory frameworks may not fully reflect the capabilities of modern insurance technology.

Advances in data and analytics allow insurers to price policies at the individual policyholder level and evaluate risk with greater precision than when many existing regulatory frameworks were developed.

However, prudence margins and capital requirements have not always adjusted to reflect these advancements.

Rajwani noted that capital efficiency becomes especially important in higher-interest-rate environments. Holding excess capital can limit reinvestment flexibility and constrain growth.

“Most insurers want to get their capital requirement down to the last decimal,” Rajwani said in the article.

Developing Legal Frameworks for Generative AI

The article also discussed the regulatory questions surrounding generative AI in the insurance sector.

Peter Ohnemus, president and CEO of dacadoo, said regulators are working to keep pace with rapid technological developments.

“The problem is that regulators are a bit overwhelmed, because everything moves so fast,” Ohnemus said in the FinTech Global article.

Ohnemus said explainability is particularly important for life and health insurers because automated decisions in those sectors can affect customer well-being.

According to Ohnemus, insurers must be able to document how generative AI models operate, explain how recommendations are generated, and show how outputs are produced.

He also called for clear legal frameworks and structured oversight to guide the use of generative AI.

“If we play football together and we have clear rules, we have more fun and become more successful,” Ohnemus said. “If it’s anarchy and no rules, it becomes dangerous.”

Ohnemus added that the insurance industry traditionally favors structured governance models, as it relies on long-term trust and regulatory accountability.