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