For the past year and a half, annuities have been breaking record after record. Now, after the products' best sales year in history, they've shattered another one: the highest quarterly sales ever recorded.

In the first quarter of 2023, total annuity sales reached $92.9 billion, according to LIMRA, an industry-funded researcher that's been tracking the products since the 1980s. The sum marked a 47% increase over Q1 of 2022.

"Fixed annuities are booming, and variable annuity sales are continuing to decline," said David Lau, the founder of DPL Financial Partners, which consults financial advisors about fee-only insurance products. "That's pretty unusual. The industry had been led by variable annuities for a very long time, up until the last year or so."

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