Transamerica launched a new fee-based variable annuity that aims to offer investors and their advisors additional flexibility in planning for retirement.
Transamerica's Variable Annuity I-Share is available through broker-dealer managed money platforms and charges an annualized fee based on a percentage of the investor's assets, with no commission charge upon purchase and no surrender charge.
According to a recent Cerulli report, interest in I-share (fee-based) variable annuity products has been "slowly growing" within the industry over the past few years, as most insurers and distributors believes they'll be needed to comply with the Department of Labor fiduciary rule.
"The investment landscape is changing, and we see that investors and their advisors want more options when choosing how they invest," Joe Boan, senior vice president with Transamerica, said in a statement. "Transamerica has been helping fee-based advisors and their clients with variable annuities for more than 20 years. The Transamerica Variable Annuity I-Share is intended to help fee-based advisors better serve clients who are planning for retirement income."
Variable annuities are retirement investments that offer tax-deferred treatment of earnings on the investments. The investor can choose lifetime payout options, death benefit options, and additional death distributions when purchasing a variable annuity.
Annuities have recently come under scrutiny after the passing of the DOL's fiduciary rule, causing sales to drop.
The Insured Retirement Institute found that industrywide annuity sales in the third quarter of 2016 dropped 12.3% from a year ago, and a report from Cerulli Associates estimated that sales would continue to drop as a direct result of the fiduciary rule.
According to Cerulli, U.S. variable annuity and fixed indexed annuity sales are expected to decline by at least 10% through 2018 as the industry struggles to adapt to regulations put forth by the Department of Labor.
USA Financial Adds Wealth Management Platform
USA Financial announced the launch of its newest platform – USA Financial Exchange.
USA Financial Exchange is a turnkey asset management program (TAMP) for investment advisor representatives of corporate RIAs, hybrid RIAs and stand-alone RIA firms. The TAMP makes dozens of strategies managed by a host of institutional managers available to advisors through a unified management account.
