Athene USA has added the Athene Amplify annuity contract — an indexed annuity product that's registered as a security with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Issuers often refer to SEC-registered indexed annuities as buffered annuities, or structured annuities, to distinguish them from indexed annuities that are not registered with the SEC.
Athene says the new contract is the first SEC-registered indexed annuity that it has offered.
Athene is issuing the new product through its Athene Annuity and Life Company subsidiary.
A purchaser of the annuity can choose between paying for a floor, or performance guarantee, and a buffer. If a purchaser chooses a buffer, Athene Annuity will protect the purchaser only against a specified percentage of decrease in an investment index. If the index drops by more than the buffer percentage, the purchaser could suffer a loss of principal.
The purchaser can choose from a menu of three investment indices.