Life and annuity issuers have been a little quiet in recent weeks, but some announcements about new products, new alliances and other strategy choices have been trickling out.
Here's a look at the ideas that seem to be shaping the new moves.
1. Offer guarantees.
The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. has introduced an Accumulation Indexed Universal Life policy.
Policyholders can use the product to accumulate cash, to fund long-term care planning and other retirement planning arrangements, as well as to protect loved ones against the death of the insured.
The product comes with six indexed accounts that earn interest based on changes in the performance of the S&P 500 Index.
A policy value enhancement feature guarantees positive interest crediting each year.
The buyer can get a no-lapse guarantee that will last up to 30 years.
The policy comes with built-in accelerated death benefit, chronic illness accelerated benefit and supplemental exchange riders.
The list of optional riders includes an additional insured term insurance rider. A purchaser can use the rider to make term coverage available to the insured's family member without an additional policy. Another optional rider can provide term coverage for the insured's children.
Investors Heritage Life Insurance has introduced a non-variable indexed annuity, the Heritage Growth Advantage contract.
The contract offers contract holders fully guaranteed participation rates on indexed accounts during the surrender charge period, the company says.
When clients buy the product, they can choose a fixed rate of compound interest or participate in positive market performance.
Contract holders can get crediting rate boosts tied to the Morgan Stanley Dynamic U.S. Equities Index, the SG Entelligent Agile 6% VT Index or the S&P MARC 5% (Multi-Asset Risk Control) Index.
2. Offer partial guarantees.
Sammons Financial Group is offering a new variable annuity, the LiveWell Dynamic Annuity contract, through its Midland National Life Insurance unit.
