Innovative Rate Buy Up feature, new Strategic Growth 7 Annuity, and two new indices bring even greater range of options for accumulating retirement savings without financial market risk
Topeka, Kan. – January 10, 2023 – Security Benefit Life Insurance Company (Security Benefit) today announced key enhancements to its Strategic Growth Series of Annuities, including the addition of a Rate Buy Up option across the series that allows retirement savers to enhance their potential contract accumulation, the launch of the Strategic Growth 7 product with a 7-year surrender charge schedule, and index accounts based on two new indices to further diversify the available crediting strategies.
“We continue to develop next generation products and enhancements to help financial professionals meet client retirement goals,” said Roger Offermann, Chief Actuary and Chief Product Officer at Security Benefit. “The Rate Buy-Up Feature is an important option that, for a charge, allows contract owners the potential to enhance their interest credits through higher cap rates, participation rates, and lower spreads. The addition of Strategic Growth 7, a new product to the series, provides financial professionals with an additional choice with a shorter 7-year surrender charge period as compared to other products in the series.”
The index additions are designed to help address challenges posed by changing economic conditions. “Adding these two new indices and crediting strategies to the product series expands choice for potential accumulation benchmarked against an even broader range of asset classes,” added Offermann. The new indices include:
The UBS Multi-Asset Inflation Aware Index aims to provide global exposure to equities, bonds, and commodities using a risk-based allocation that is informed by market implied U.S. inflation environment. Each asset class features its own investment mechanism—equities use an intraday rebalancing methodology to quickly adapt to changes in equity markets, bonds leverage a dynamic weighting mechanism to adapt to changing rates, and a diversified commodity strategy is used as an uncorrelated source of potential return. The Index targets a volatility of 5% aimed at smoothing returns over time and is rebalanced daily.
The Morgan Stanley Global Equity Allocator Index provides exposure to global equities employing a momentum-based allocation strategy. The Index targets 10% realized volatility, and adjusts exposure to US Equities intraday, while adjusting all other allocations by the end of the day. A momentum signal is calculated for each equity component based on the risk-controlled underlying index prices and is used as an indicator of the corresponding equity futures performance. If the Index’s U.S. equity holdings experience significant changes in volatility intraday, the Index can rebalance to bring volatility back to target. A dynamic fee mechanism built within the Index allows for a larger allocation to non-cash assets and greater participation in upside performance in a cost-controlled manner.
Each product in the Strategic Growth Series will offer an Annual and 2-year Point to Point Index Account benchmarked against each of these new indices, with each index account also offering the new Rate Buy Up Feature.
FIAs are a flexible vehicle that offer contract-holders the ability to de-risk their portfolios by safely accumulating and growing retirement assets without the risk of market losses. This makes FIAs appealing fixed income alternatives for many retirement portfolios as they guarantee principal and are free from bond market risk, interest rate risk, and sequence of returns risk.
Offered through Security Benefit’s exclusive distribution group of select IMOs, financial professionals can visit www.sbelitepartners.com to learn more about the Strategic Growth Series of Annuities and how they can be used to help their clients protect and accumulate retirement assets.