Pacific Life, Corebridge lead JD Power’s new life and annuity distribution rankings
Customer satisfaction among US life and annuity distribution partners is running high, but many financial professionals still say insurers are harder to work with than they would like, according to JD Power's inaugural 2026 US Life & Annuity Distribution Partner Experience Study.
The study, released March 5, named Pacific Life as the top-ranked life insurance distribution partner and Corebridge Financial as the top-ranked annuity distribution partner, based on feedback from financial advisors, insurance agents and banking professionals who distribute these products.
Average overall satisfaction with life insurance distribution partners came in at 743 on JD Power’s 1,000‑point scale, while annuity partners scored 742. Those scores are well above JD Power’s 2025 benchmarks for other intermediated lines, where independent agents rated personal lines carriers at 664 on average and independent financial advisors rated wealth managers at 629.
Despite those results, ease of interaction remains a weak spot. Fewer than half (40%) of financial professionals said their life and annuity partners are “very easy to work with,” even though ease of doing business is consistently cited as a top priority. Brand loyalty reaches 78% among life partners and 71% among annuity partners that are viewed as very easy to work with, highlighting the revenue implications when carriers streamline processes.
Craig Martin, executive director of global insurance intelligence at JD Power, said time and reputation are the “two most valuable commodities” for financial professionals, so they place “an enormously high value on trust and ease of interaction.” He added that many providers still “come up short on self‑service capabilities” and rely on processes that can be time‑consuming and “seem antiquated.”
Nearly one‑third (31%) of respondents said the balance between self‑service and live support is suboptimal when working with life and annuity providers, with 20% specifically calling for better self‑service capabilities from annuity partners.
Most carriers meet basic digital expectations, with 71% of financial professionals rated their partners’ digital portals as “excellent”. Where portals fall short, however, satisfaction drops sharply. Among the 29% who said their portal experience is not excellent, overall satisfaction scores fall by more than 200 points, underlining how central portal design, functionality and integration have become to the advisor and agent experience.
This focus on digital enablement mirrors pressure in other channels. In JD Power’s 2025 US Independent Agent Satisfaction Study, ease of doing business, digital tools and operational support were also highlighted as key drivers of agent loyalty in P&C markets.
On the life side, Pacific Life ranked highest in overall satisfaction with a score of 768, ahead of Guardian Life at 761 and Allianz at 760. Industry rankings also place Pacific Life among the top 10 US life insurers by individual annuity considerations, supported by strong fixed annuity sales in recent years.
In annuities, Corebridge Financial led with a score of 765, narrowly ahead of Security Benefit at 764 and Symetra at 754. Corebridge, spun out of AIG’s life and retirement division in 2022, has rapidly become one of the largest fixed annuity writers in the US, benefiting from record annuity sales that have topped $100 billion for seven consecutive quarters.
LIMRA data showed independent agents, broker‑dealers, banks and IMOs now drive the majority of fixed and registered index-linked annuity sales, with independent and bank channels together accounting for roughly 40% to 50% of annuity volumes.
The results reinforce that distribution relationships will increasingly be won or lost on process efficiency and digital experience, not just product breadth or headline crediting rates.
