Transamerica Adds a Variable Annuity: Annuity Product Update

Transamerica has introduced the Transamerica Advisory Annuity contract.

The contract has expense ratios that can range from 0.39% to 0.93%, depending on the investment allocations chosen.

(Related: Allianz Life Adds Switchable Indexed Annuity: Annuity Product Update)

The contract holder can choose from a menu of investment options, including 18 portfolios managed by Vanguard and eight by Dimension Fund Advisors.

For death benefits, the contract holder can choose between a policy value option and a return-of-premium option.

Transamerica is a Baltimore-based arm of Aegon N.V. of The Hague, in the Netherlands. It’s writing the new annuity through its Transamerica Life Insurance Company affiliate, which has its official state of domicile in Iowa.

Transamerica is selling the new annuity through its own annuity specialists, fee-based  says advisors and registered investment advisors.

In other annuity product news, Standard Insurance Company says it’s updating the versions of the Focused Growth Annuity and Index Select Annuity contracts it sells in California.

The updates add options that were already available in other states.

The Focused Growth Annuity is a single-premium deferred annuity. The update offers contract purchasers in California access to a three-year interest rate guarantee at the time of purchase. The contract also offers five-year and seven-year rate guarantee options.

The Index Select Annuity is  single-premium, deferred, indexed annuity that’s filed as a non-variable product. The new update gives the contract purchaser access to three crediting options: index crediting with a participation rate; index crediting with a cap rate; and fixed interest crediting.

Standard Insurance Company is a Portland, Oregon-based arm of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company of Tokyo.

— Read Transamerica Says It Has One of the Advisory Fee Letter Rulings, on ThinkAdvisor.

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