Craig Hawley Promoted to Lead Nationwide Annuity Practice

Craig Hawley

Craig Hawley will take over as the new leader of Nationwide’s annuity practice, effective August 5, according to an announcement from John Carter, Nationwide Financial’s president and chief operating officer.

Hawley will transition out of his current role as leader of retirement solutions distribution and will succeed Eric Henderson, who earlier this year announced plans to retire. Nationwide President of Retirement Solutions Eric Stevenson will search internally and externally for Hawley’s replacement. In the interim, the distribution team will report to Stevenson.

“Craig Hawley is known as an innovator who leverages data and digital tools to drive results and an admired leader committed to recruiting and developing high-performing teams,” said Carter said in a statement. “He is assuming leadership of a very high-performing team that has celebrated three consecutive years of record growth.”

Hawley will be taking over one the country’s largest annuity sellers at a time when higher interest rates have been pushing sales of the insurance-backed investment to record highs. The workplace retirement sector has also been ramping up its focus on using annuities to address retirement income needs beyond Social Security.

Hawley joined Nationwide in 2017 with the acquisition of Nationwide Advisory Solutions, formerly Jefferson National. As general counsel at Jefferson National, he was responsible for all legal, compliance, government relations, internal audit and operations functions for the firm.

After joining Nationwide as the head of Nationwide Advisory Solutions, Hawley oversaw Nationwide’s fee-based annuity distribution channel, which served more than 6,000 registered investment advisers and fee-based advisers. He also led that team’s two-year integration into Nationwide.

In 2019, Hawley was promoted to senior vice president of annuity distribution for Nationwide. In this role, he reduced acquisition costs, increased market share and expanded area coverage. Three years later, in 2022, he was named senior vice president of Nationwide Retirement Solutions Distribution.

Based on LIMRA’s U.S. Individual Annuity Sales 2023 Year-End rankings, Nationwide ranks seventh nationally with more than $14.6 million in total annuity sales. The top three firms in total annuity sales were Athene Annuity & Life Co. ($35.5 billion), Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. ($24.7 billion) and Corebridge Financial Inc. ($23.6 billion).

Meanwhile, Nationwide placed ninth in variable annuity sales with $4.7 billion and seventh in fixed annuity sales with $9.9 billion. Equitable Financial placed first in variable annuity sales ($17.9 billion), while Athene Annuity & Life ranked first for fixed annuity sales ($9.9 billion).