Brighthouse Adds Indexed Annuity With Lifetime Income Rider
Myles Lambert says the new product reflects clients' mixed feelings about their nest eggs.
A new family of annuities from Brighthouse Financial could help a client create a stream of retirement income that will increase along with prices.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company introduced the Brighthouse SecureKey Fixed Indexed Annuities Monday.
The contracts offer a fixed minimum level of interest; a chance for the client to earn extra interest; an optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit rider, or GLWB rider that can convert the annuity assets into a lifetime stream of income for one or two people; and options that can increase the amount of income that the client gets at retirement.
Myles Lambert, Brighthouse Financial’s chief distribution and marketing officer, said in a comment about the product launch that the new annuities provide a balance between safety and the potential for market growth.
What it means: When interest rates were low, and life insurers had a hard time earning good returns on the assets supporting annuity benefits guarantees, many insurers backed away from offering your clients products with significant benefits guarantees.
Now that interest rates are up and life insurers can earn higher returns on their own investments, annuity benefit guarantees may be making a comeback.
The contracts: The new Brighthouse annuities are single-premium, deferred, nonvariable indexed annuities.
A client can tie part or all of the crediting rate for the annuity assets to the performance of one or more investment indexes.
The current index menu includes the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and MSCI EAFE indexes. Clients can also choose a fixed account and a version of the S&P 500 index that’s supposed to be less volatile than the original index.
A client can convert the contract assets into retirement income using the ReadyPay GLWB rider
The rider includes two built-in features that can increase the income base and help a client cope with inflation, a roll-up feature and a step-up feature.
Brighthouse introduced versions of the SecureKey contract with five-year, seven-year and 10-year withdrawal charge schedules.
The company has also introduced a version aimed at fee-based advisors. That version has no withdrawal charge.
Myles Lambert. Credit: Brighthouse