There’s a tipping point in our industry when, inevitably, a product category goes from being talked about in boardrooms as “a niche market” to something that anyone can obviously see is the next big thing. It usually happens when the status quo product is in peril. Right now, carriers traditionally strong in the VA space are watching their sales take a nosedive and they’re looking for other options. Fixed Indexed Annuities are obviously on the table but, as many of them are finding out, competing in the FIA space means duking it out with a bunch of companies who play by a different set of rules and taking on interest rate and longevity risk that is not so different from their core annuity businesses. So how is an insurer supposed to grow annuity sales without giving away the house?