Symetra Adds Indexed Annuity: Annuity Update

News June 09, 2020 at 03:55 PM
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Symetra Life Insurance Company has introduced the Symetra Prestige indexed annuity contract.

The contract is filed as a non-variable annuity. Symetra is distributing the product through four independent marketing organizations: Advisors Excel, Asset Marketing, Impact Partnership and Quantum.

Those IMOs will offer other Symetra annuities along with the new indexed annuity.

Symetra says it worked with Innovation Design Group to create the new annuity. The product lets the purchaser tie returns either to the SG Columbia Global Market States Index or the S&P 500 Index.

One optional feature is a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit rider. People ages 50 and older can elect the rider at the time of purchaser.

Another feature lets a purchaser of the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit rider skip paying the performance-based charge if the performance of the indexed account meets or exceeds a designated threshold.

In other annuity update news:

USAA Life Insurance Company has used NEOS to help launch a single-premium immediate annuity and distribute the annuity through an outside program, Fidelity Insurance Network program. The company previously sold products only through direct channels.

TrueChoice Financial Group LLC has started using the Envestnet Insurance Exchange to help investment advisors and other financial professionals offer annuities. TrueChoice was formed through a combination of American Financial, Ann Arbor Annuity Exchange, GamePlan Financial Marketing and The Annuity Store in October 2019. In 2018, TrueChoice generated about $2.9 billion in annuity sales.

WinTech, a company that sells retirement valuation and administration software, says it will use longevity analytics technology from Club Vita in its ProVal defined benefit valuation software. Club Vita offers tools for analyzing U.S. longevity data at the ZIP code level.  One way pension plan administrators and life insurers can use the system is to do the math supporting pension risk transfer group annuity sales.

Milliman Inc. says the overall pension funded ratio for 100 large U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans it tracks fell to 84% May 31, from 84.5% April 30.

The pension plans in the index have about $1.6 trillion in assets, about $1.9 trillion in projected benefit obligations, and a deficit of $306 billion, according to Milliman.

Corporate pension plans hold some stocks but depend heavily on investments in bonds, and low yields on bonds are not helping the plans' funded status, according to Milliman.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article described USAA's relationship with NEOS incorrectly. NEOS helped USAA with the launch and distribution of the single-premium immediate annuity.

— Read Annuities Have the Wind at Their Backon ThinkAdvisor.

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