Delaware Life Adds Variable Annuity With Optional Benefits Guarantee Rider

Delaware Life Insurance Company has introduced an individual deferred variable annuity contract that offers an optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) rider.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company says it will distribute the new Delaware Life Masters Prime Variable Annuity contract through the bank and broker-dealer channels.

(Related: Allianz Life Adds Variable Annuity)

A copy of the GLWB rider filed with Delaware insurance regulators shows an investment menu that includes options from a wide range of managers, including American Funds, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Invesco, JPMorgan, MFS, Morgan Stanley, PIMCO and Putnam.

A client can use a built-in death benefit feature or choose between two alternative death benefit riders.

John and Jane Doe's Annuity

Delaware Life put a sample GLWB rider form, for John and Jane Doe, in its regulatory filings. The sample filing shows the fictional couple getting a bonus rate of 5.5%, paying a rider fee rate of 0.3% for the GLWB rider, and having a maximum withdrawal benefit base of $5 million.

The original rider fee rate of 0.3% is guaranteed for the life of the rider unless the Does elect a step-up, according to the filing. In the filing, Delaware Life states that the rider fee rate will never exceed 0.4875%.

The filing shows maximum lifetime withdrawal percentages ranging from 3.5% to 6.5% for a single life, and 2.5% to 5.5% for a joint-life arrangement.

Delaware Life, Group1001 and Guggenheim Partners

Daniel Towriss, the president of Delaware Life, was an insurance deal expert at Guggenheim Partners. In 2012, Towriss formed a group of private investors, apart from Guggenheim Partners, to acquire Sun Life Financial's U.S. annuity business, and some of Sun Life's U.S. life policies.

The investor group completed the Sun Life annuity business acquisition in August 2013. The group changed the name of the holding company it used to acquire the old Sun Life annuity business to Group One Thousand One LLC, or Group1001, in September 2017.

Delaware Life now administers 320,000 active annuity and life insurance policies and has $36 billion in assets under management.

Delaware Life has introduced seven annuities since Group1001 acquired it and generated about $7 billion in sales, according to Group1001.

The Relay Program

Group1001 still has a close relationship with Guggenheim Partners.

Group1001 is working with Guggenheim Life and Annuity Company to roll out the Relay Planned Spend Account program.

The Relay program combines a Guggenheim Life immediate annuity with a prepaid debit card. A consumer who uses the debit card to spend the annuity payouts can earn the same kinds of cash-back rewards that users of ordinary debit cards earn.

The purchasers of a Relay arrangement can manage the annuity and the debit card entirely online.

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