Two thirds of advisors say that a key goal for pre-retirementand retiree clients is income distribution planning—but thatdoesn’t mean they’re suggesting annuities as a way to achieve thatgoal.

That’s according to a survey conducted by Saybrus Partners,Inc., which found that while 65 percent of advisors identified“retirement income distribution planning” as the chief objective ofclients in their fifties and sixties, only 27 percent said thatfixed and/or indexed annuities weresomething they most frequently recommended for those clients.

Of course, that could be because annuities can come with highercosts than advisors might be comfortable recommending.

In fact, longevity annuities are coming in forsome serious attention, not only from the National Institute onRetirement Security, but also from public retirement plan sponsorslooking to cut their longevity risk exposure, and to do it at lowercost than via fixed income annuities.

Fixed annuities have two drawbacks—higher cost and greaterdifficulty in generating a given level of income.

In addition, the new fiduciary rule proposed by the Departmentof Labor could, according to its critics,hamper advisor recommendations forsuch products because of fees and commissions.

Advisor survey respondents said that in order to better addresstheir clients’ retirement needs, they would like to see “moreinnovative/comprehensive products” (54 percent) and “multi-solution products” (35 percent).

But “today’s fixed and indexed annuities, which are continuingto evolve in their features and benefits,” said Mark Fitzgerald,national sales manager for Saybrus Partners, in a statement, willallow advisors to “provide their clients with a full range ofoptions.”

Fitzgerald added that although fixed and indexed annuity saleshad grown by 10 percent in broker-dealer and bank channels, thosesales “tend to be less benefit-oriented, possibly due to theseadvisors being less familiar with the more robust features offeredwith many FIAs available today.”

According to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, 67 percentof broker-dealer sales of FIAs in 2014 elected a guaranteed incomerider and just 25 percent of bank sales did.

“Variable annuities” were only the top recommendation of 35percent of respondents, although 58 percent said clients in theirfifties and sixties believed the biggest risk to their retirementportfolios was outliving their savings.

With so many clients worried about or focused on income duringretirement, and so few advisors focused on that issue, it’s clearthat something needs to change.