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Life Health > Annuities

Transamerica to Offer Stand-Alone Stable Value Option: Retirement Moves

By Allison Bell

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What You Need to Know

  • Employers can bolt the Transamerica Guaranteed Investment Option product onto plans from other providers.
  • MetLife has assumed post-retirement life obligations for about 8,000 retirees.
  • Securian is working with SageView to add personalized managed account programs for workplace retirement plans.

Transamerica is helping employers offer stability of returns.

The life insurer has introduced a stand-alone, investment-only version of the Transamerica Guaranteed Investment Option stable value product.

An employer can use the product to offer an option that guarantees principal and interest for a plan participant.

Transamerica backs the guarantee using the financial strength of the Transamerica Life Insurance Co. general account. Transamerica Life backs the general account obligations with a portfolio of investment-grade fixed income securities, Transamerica says.

In the past, Transamerica offered the stable value option along with its own plans. Now, the company says, an employer with a minimum of $5 million in plan assets can offer the option along with almost any type of retirement plan from almost any plan provider.

In other group annuity, post-retirement group insurance and retirement plan news:

MetLife

MetLife has assumed $190 million in post-retirement life insurance liabilities for about 8,000 Avaya retirees.

The retirees’ life insurance benefits will stay the same, and MetLife will take responsibility for paying the death benefits and keeping the plan records, MetLife says.

Nationwide

The city of North Las Vegas has picked Nationwide’s Nationwide Retirement Solutions unit to provide 457 and 401(a) deferred compensation plans for about 1,150 plan participants.

The participants have about $96 million in assets, or about $83,500 in assets each.

Nationwide will provide recordkeeping services, administrative services, financial planning services and access to the My Interactive Retirement Planner online financial planning tool.

Securian and SageView

Securian Financial has agreed to work with SageView Advisory Group to offer personalized managed account programs for participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans.

SageView will work with an employer to develop an investment menu for that employer, then use information from the plan participants about their finances and goals to develop investment portfolios for the participants.

SageView will work with Stadion Money Management to monitor the portfolios and make sure the portfolios remain suitable for the participants as their finances and life circumstances change, Securian says.

A group variable annuity from a Securian subsidiary, Minnesota Life Insurance Co., will hold the assets of each personalized portfolio provided by the program.

Pacific Life

Pacific Life has agreed to use the V3locity system, an administration and analysis system from Vitech Systems Group, to manage its pension risk transfer and stable value businesses.

The life insurer has also agreed to use Vitech’s V3locity Digital online portal system to help customers manage their own accounts.

Data

The Secure Retirement Institute reports that U.S. pension risk transfer activity increased to $5 billion in the second quarter of the year, up $2.3 billion from the second quarter of 2020. Analysts there say that the U.S. deal pipeline continues to look strong, and that they are sticking with earlier predictions that the U.S. market could generate about $25 billion to $30 billion in pension risk transfer deals this year.

Milliman says big U.S. corporate pension plans had funded about 97.3% of the promised benefits at the end of September. The funded ratio was unchanged from the ratio at the end of August. Plans had $1.86 trillion in pension benefits obligations and assets with a market value of about $1.809 trillion.

(Image: Shutterstock)

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

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