The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America has looked at the ups and downs in the stock market and decided to offer annuity benefits guarantees anyway.
The New York-based insurer introduced its first non-variable indexed annuity, the Guardian Secure Index Annuity contract, earlier this week.
The annuity protects holders against losing account value as a result of investment market turmoil.
The investment index menu includes the S&P 500 stock index, the AB Global Allocator Index and the PIMCO Balanced Allocation Plus Index.
An optional guaranteed living benefits rider, the Guardian Income Magnifier Rider, can keep a contract's guaranteed level of annuity income from falling during the life of the contract.
An annuity buyer who wants inflation protection might be able to use the rider to provide that.
A Guardian subsidiary, The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, backs the rider.
Guardian is selling the new product through registered representatives affiliated with its Park Avenue Securities arm.
