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Firm sinks assets into annuities.

Article Excerpt
As investors sought relief from a three-year bear market, insurance companies selling annuities, or contracts that carry guaranteed, tax-deferred returns saw a huge influx of money.

That fact also helped propel the fortunes of Asset Marketing Systems in Scripps Ranch, which distributes fixed-rate annuities to independent sales representatives.

AMS doesn't originate the annuities but provides training and marketing support services to agents in exchange for a percentage of the premiums paid by the buyers.

This year, some 6,000 agents affiliated with AMS will generate about $2.3 billion in fixed annuity premiums, providing AMS with annual revenues of about $43 million. That's up from about $1.3 billion in premiums generated last year, which resulted in about $25 million in revenues for AMS, said President and CEO Mike Midlam.

"We have one simple mission: to capture half the market within eight years," said Midlam, who co-founded the company with his late friend, Richard Metcalf, in 1996.

With the total market for fixed-rate annuities at about $100 billion, that's a lofty goal since the firm's share of the market last year was only 1.5 percent. But given AMS' growth rate...

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