Equitable Updates a RILA Family

Equitable has added some protection against market volatility to its Structured Capital Strategies Plus 21 and Structured Capital Strategies registered index-linked annuities.

One of the new features, Loss Limiter, can keep a client from losing more than 5% or 10% of investment value due to a market downturn.

Another feature, Dual Step Up, guarantees a positive rate of return as long as the performance of a designated index exceeds a selected minimum. The feature can help a client earn a positive rate of return if the index falls either 10% or 15% during the 1-year period.

Equitable says it added the features in response to clients’ concerns about persistent economic uncertainty and decreased investment returns.

The New York-based life insurer has been selling RILA contracts since 2010 and helped create the RILA market.

In other annuity news:

Jackson National Life Insurance Company started distributing two registered index-linked annuities, the Jackson Market Link Pro and Jackson Market Link Pro Advisory, through the Simon from iCapital annuity distribution system. Jackson plans to add more annuities to the system by the end of the month.

The Index Standard, a company that provides ratings and forecasts for the indexes inside indexed annuities and other products, has added two services: FIA Forecast Credits and FIA Model Allocations.

The FIA Forecast Credits service can predict the rate of return for each individual crediting strategy in a non-variable indexed annuity.

The FIA Model Allocations service can recommend ways to allocate cash to the crediting strategies in an indexed annuity to maximize returns while minimizing risk.

Kuvare Holdings has set up three annuity-related reinsurance arrangements. Two will help Japanese life insurers write more fixed annuities, and a third covers in-force annuities issued by a large insurer in Hong Kong, the company says.

(Photo: ALM)