192 workers will lose jobs June 2

• F&G Annuities and Life, based in Des Moines, will lay off 192 employees effective June 2.
• The company cited the layoffs as a move to “efficiently scale the business and ensure long-term success.”
• The Des Moines metro area has seen a decline in finance and insurance jobs since 2017.

Des Moines-based F&G Annuities and Life will lay off employees by next week, a blow to a rare recent bright spot in the metro’s sluggish financial services sector.

The company confirmed Wednesday, May 28, that it will cut 192 jobs after a disappointing first quarter due to declining annuity sales and a decrease in the value of its assets. The latter problem aligns with broader U.S. market issues during President Donald Trump’s trade wars with Europe, China and other regions.

Company officials will lay off the employees by June 2. The cuts affect 103 people in Iowa, which includes workers both in Des Moines and those working remotely. Overall, F&G is cutting 14% of its employees.

“This is in alignment with the company’s goals to efficiently scale the business and ensure our long-term success,” an F&G spokesperson said in a statement.

On May 7, the company disclosed that it lost $25 million in the first three months of the year. Accountants determined that the value of F&G’s equity options decreased by about $234 million during those three months. Options are contracts that give investors the ability to buy or sell stock in the future.

The value of an equity option goes up when the targeted company’s stock price increases after the investor buys the contract. When the price goes down, the value of the contract decreases. (Alternatively, an investor can bet that a stock will decrease in price in what is known as a “short.”)

The company’s annuity sales also declined 27% compared to the same period in 2024, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report.

In an earnings call after the disclosure three weeks ago, F&G CEO Chris Blunt blamed the bad quarter on “the volatility of the overall environment, the majority of which we believe to be temporary in nature.”

The U.S. financial market has struggled since Trump began raising and lowering tariffs after taking office in January, setting off a frenzy on Wall Street. The Standard & Poor’s 500 decreased about 4% in the first three months of the year, the period when F&G lost $25 million.

The index plunged further in April, when Trump announced steep tariffs on China. The market has since recovered as Trump and Chinese officials have decreased the tariffs against each other, although the tariffs remain much higher than they were last year.

The S&P increased about 5% from April 1 through early Wednesday afternoon. Overall, the index is flat through the first five months of the year. The index increased 12% in the first five months of 2024.

In addition to the losses from equity options, F&G’s investments in bonds decreased in value by about $3.46 billion. The company does not recognize those losses on its income statement because the value of the assets may later increase. The losses include investments in U.S. treasuries and corporate bonds — most significantly, in a category that the company’s accountants describe as “services, media and other.”

With Wells Fargo cutting jobs and Principal Financial Group’s head count remaining flat, F&G has been a bright spot for Des Moines’ financial services sector since executives opened a local office in 2015. F&G relocated its headquarters from Baltimore to 801 Grand Ave. in 2020.

Last year, company officials told the Register that F&G employed about 650 workers in Des Moines, up from 200 in 2018.

This story was updated to add information about F&G’s annuity sales data and the company’s total headcount.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.

Tyler Jett is an investigative reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on X at @LetsJett. He also accepts encrypted messages at tjett@proton.me.

This story was updated to add new information.