Osaic Wealth will begin offering direct billing methods through designated fee-based variable annuities that are available on Osaic’s platform. 

The capability will allow financial advisors to streamline their annuity management, various operations, and enhance flexibility for their services, through Osaic’s Annuity Submission Platform, the company said. 

“This new functionality underscores our ongoing commitment to delivering solutions that power productivity and provide the flexibility to choose the investment products that best fit their clients’ needs,” Shannon Larson, SVP of Osaic Platform Management & Product Development, said. “Equally important, we’re delivering these solutions with speed. Integrating these solutions aligns with our mission to lead with fee-based innovation.” 

This comes as the registered investment advisors channel is expected to become the next growth division for the annuities sector.  

Over the next three years, at least 45% of industry professionals say that the insurance industry will experience the “most development” from the RIA channel, meanwhile 38% of professionals expect growth from the independent space, and 8% from wirehouses, according to a recent study conducted by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. 

Approximately 72.4% of financial advisors are compensated through fee-based models, as advisors are seeking to diversify their services and by next year about 77.6% of professionals within the wealth management industry are expected to operate on a fee-based model, which is an increase by five percentage points from last year, according to a study conducted by Cerulli Associates in March. 

“While asset-based fees are on the rise, they are not suitable in every situation,” Andrew Blake, associate director at Cerulli Associates, said. “Alternative fee structures, such as annual or hourly fees, can provide greater flexibility in client service and a competitive advantage for firms in the fee-based business model.”