Challenger has reported a 22% increase in total annuity sales to $3.35 billion for the year to June 30.

Fixed-term annuity sales also grew 22% in the year, to $2.76 billion. Lifetime annuity sales were up 21% to $581 million.

Challenger’s annuity book grew 8.5% to $9.5 billion.

Sales of the CarePlus aged care product, introduced in August last year, totalled $60 million in the year to June 30. More than half were achieved in the final quarter.

Challenger will add CarePlus to the Colonial First State FirstChoice platform next month.

Its annuities will also be rolled out to three industry superannuation funds early next year: Local Government Super, LegalSuper and CareSuper.

Challenger has struck a deal with Suncorp to distribute annuities to its client base from the middle of next year. These white-label annuities will be branded as Suncorp.

CEO Brian Benari says the company has built on its market leadership in the retirement income market to deliver record annuity sales.

“The bottom line is more retirees are buying Challenger annuities because they better understand retirement risk,” he said. “They are seeking guidance from advisers who rate us highly and can access our products much more easily from a growing range of platforms.”

Mr Benari says higher annuity sales were achieved through an expanded distribution capability.

“Building scale through platforms is an important part of Challenger’s strategy with both retail and industry fund partners.

“During the past year Challenger has launched a number of distribution partnerships to make our annuities more readily available to financial advisers and super fund members.

“These are already bearing fruit, with sales volume through Colonial First State doubling in the first year our annuities have been on its platform.”

Challenger reported an after-tax profit of $362 million for the financial year, up 8% on the previous year.