American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (NYSE:AEL) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Julie Heidemann - Investor Relations
Anant Bhalla - Chief Executive Officer & President
Axel Andre - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Jim Hamalainen - Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer
Conference Call Participants
Erik Bass - Autonomous Research
John Barnidge - Piper Sandler
Ryan Krueger - KBW
Tom Gallagher - Evercore
Dan Bergman - Jefferies
Pablo Singzon - JPMorgan
Operator
Welcome to American Equity Investment Life Holding Company's First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Julie Heidemann of Coordinator of Investor Relations.
Julie Heidemann
Good morning, and welcome to American Equity Investment Life Holding Company's Conference Call to discuss first quarter 2023 earnings. Our earnings release and financial supplement can be found on our website at www.american-equity.com.
Non-GAAP financial measures discussed on today's call and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in those documents or elsewhere on our Investor Relations portion of our website. Presenting on today's call are Anant Bhalla, Chief Executive Officer; Jim Hamalainen, Chief Investment Officer; and Axel Andre, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, our financial results reflect the adoption of accounting standard update 2018-12, more commonly known as long-duration targeted improvements or LDTI.
Long-duration targeted improvement accounting guidance was adopted at the beginning of the year and prior year results have been adjusted accordingly. Some of our comments will contain forward-looking statements which refer or relate to future results, many of which we have identified in our earnings release. Our actual results could significantly differ due to many risks, including the risk factors in our SEC filings. An audio replay will be made available on our website shortly after today's call. It is now my pleasure to introduce Anant Bhalla.
Anant Bhalla
Good morning, and thank you all for your interest in American Equity. Positive changes in the way we go to market have begun to bear fruit. In the first quarter of 2023, we had total sales of $1.4 billion, driven by a 23% sequential quarter increase in fixed index annuity sales to $964 million.
At American Equity Life, FIA sales increased 16% from the fourth quarter of 2022, with solid gains in the sales of both income and accumulation products. Eagle Life sales increased 57% from the fourth quarter and 80% year-over-year. Periods of sustained capital markets uncertainty are a tailwind for our go-to-market strategies as lifetime income and principal protected accumulation products become more appealing for advisers and agents to position with their clients.