Health Insurance Underwriter

Annuities and

Retirement Planning:

Q &A

by Min Shepherd
Associate Editor
mshepherd@nahu.org

The editorial focus of this issue is annuities and the retirement planning market. Phoenix Companies, Inc., based in Hartford, Connecticut, is a firm that offers products to help individuals solve their personal financial and retirement income planning needs through its array of life insurance and annuities. We had the opportunity to speak with Kathy Cody, senior vice president of the alternative retirement solutions group at Phoenix, which was established to specifically focus on the development of innovative products that apply popular features from life insurance and annuity products to other investment products in non-traditional ways.

Here, Kathy discusses some tools that are aimed at adding longevity and market protection to retirement plans, as well as overall trends in the growing market for retirement solution products and services.

Can you briefly tell us a little bit more about Guaranteed
Income Edge?

The development of the product began approximately 18 months ago, in partnership with Lockwood Capital Management. Officially launched in May and registered with the SEC, Guaranteed Income Edge is a product in which Phoenix provides a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit on Lockwood’s managed account programs with certain asset allocation strategies.

How would you explain your product to an individual who is
just starting to plan for retirement?

Phoenix will provide an optional five percent income guarantee on certain asset allocation models within Lockwood’s managed account programs. For example, if someone had a million-dollar portfolio, the annual income benefit would be $50,000, subject to certain conditions, no matter what your account balance does and no matter long they live. It’s really providing both market protection and longevity protection.

What are some other benefits to this product?

The product has a feature to lock in a higher income base as your account grows. For instance, if your account grows from 1 million to 1. 5 million, you can lock in the five percent income guarantee on the higher balance. Additionally, while the product allows the guarantee to increase respective to positive market performance and additional contributions, the original amount guarantee can never decrease. An account holder can also always opt out of the guarantee at any time.

Let’s transition to the bigger picture of the retirement market as a whole. Can you give some examples of other alternative retirement solutions that you have either worked with or seen launched by other companies to insure retirement financial security?