Liberty Life Changes Name to Athene Annuity & Life Following Merger

Liberty Life Insurance Co. has changed its legal name to Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Co. and will operate under the brand name Athene Annuity.

The move aligns the company, a retail fixed annuity and reinsurance provider, more closely with its Bermuda-based corporate parent, Athene Holding Ltd., which acquired Liberty Life from Royal Bank of Canada in April 2011.

"We purchased Liberty to provide a platform for the growth of our fixed annuity businesses in the United States," James R. Belardi, chief executive officer of Athene Holding, said in a statement. "Renaming the company underscores its strategic importance to our operations and strengthens the Athene brand."

Since the acquisition, Athene Annuity has grown its business, opening a retail sales and marketing office in Wilmington, Del. and launching a focused portfolio of fixed annuity solutions, the company said.

With the completion of a $3.1 billion reinsurance transaction in December 2011, the company now has assets of about $7 billion. On a consolidated basis, parent company Athene Holding Ltd. has assets of approximately $10 billion and equity of more than $750 million. Since the acquisition, the company has added about 80 full-time staff in Wilmington, Del., and in Greenville, S.C.

Prior to the acquisition by Athene Holding Ltd., Liberty Life operated through three distinct distribution channels — life sales, retirement solutions, and specialty products — according to BestLink. The life sales channel included a proprietary sales force operating mainly in the Southeast. Although fixed annuities represented the majority of the company's premium income, Liberty Life also marketed term, traditional universal life, accidental death, cancer and critical illness products. Under its new ownership, all business except annuities has been reinsured to Protective Life, and no new life business will be written. New business activities will center on annuities, including the reinsurance of fixed annuity business from U.S. direct writers, BestLink noted.

Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Co. has a current Best's Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good).

(By Caroline Saucer, editor, BestWeek: [email protected])