Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. (Operator instructions). Sir, our first question comes from Bob Glasspiegel from Langen McAlenney.
Bob Glasspiegel – Langen McAlenney
Good morning. I was wondering if you could give us some color on the closed block. It seems from my perspective, that’s going to be a really important part of the overall company over the several quarters. What’s the persistency of that block and has that changed much in the last couple of quarters?
Jim Wehr
Sure, Bob. The persistency in that block has been sort of in the range – been in the past quarters, but it is elevated over past quarters. I don’t have the precise numbers right in front of me, but the increase is in line with the overall – it’s gone up into sort of the still under 10% range, probably in the 9% range annualized in the first quarter. And prior quarters would range anywhere from high-4s to say 7-ish in prior quarters. So, it’s within a 200 basis points of previous quarter’s highs.
Bob Glasspiegel – Langen McAlenney
Okay. Your plan to rebuild sales is obviously going to take a lot of time and you gave us some broad goals or elements to your strategy that are going to be part of it, but can you give us some examples of the type of distributor that you are looking at that will hook up with Phoenix or stuff that’s in play that –?
Jim Wehr
Yes, without mentioning names, we have been obviously making contacts or so. And we have been contacted independently by some independent marketing organizations who would like to explore doing business with us, would largely be amongst independent producers. So that it’s more independent producers who make their decisions one at a time about this sort of thing as opposed to large firms with a gatekeeper who makes the decision for 3,000, 5,000 advisors all along.
So, we’ve been proactively reaching out to distributors who do business with other companies with lower ratings and some have contacted us.
Bob Glasspiegel – Langen McAlenney
Okay.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Our next question comes from Steven Schwartz from Raymond James.
Steven Schwartz – Raymond James
Hi, good morning everybody. My two relate to State Farm and National Life. Peter, maybe – or Phil, maybe you have any sense, given the timing of when those agreements went into suspension, of how much annuity sales and life sales, those two relationships contributed in the quarter?
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