A new line of variable annuities from the Phoenix Companies Inc. is part of a plan to make it easier for clients to buy its products, a company executive says.[@@]
"Our intent with the new product eventually is to take off the market some of our other kinds of products," Mark Tully, a senior vice president of Phoenix, Hartford, says. "We're attempting to simplify the choices."
About 2 weeks ago, the company launched Phoenix Dimensions, a flexible-premium, deferred VA offering a wide range of living and death benefit riders.
Currently, Phoenix offers 7 other accumulation and income VAs, plus private-placement products for wealthy investors. Those are the choices it ultimately plans to thin down with Dimensions, which has a range of riders that allows advisors to tailor the product to client financial profiles. The riders present a number of guaranteed minimum benefits, including a assured income stream.
The company has not yet decided which of its current annuities it will discontinue, or when, Tully says.
