RetireOne And Great American Life Team Up On Annuity Offering

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RetireOne^® has teamed up with Great American Life Insurance Company^® to offer the Index Protector^SM 7 annuity to RIAs and fee-based advisors who are seeking non-correlated assets to de-risk client portfolios.

With interest rates still relatively low and rising, this no-load fixed-indexed annuity (FIA) can serve as a fixed income alternative in client portfolios to help protect the downside, while offering a measure of upside potential with four allocation options.

"Fixed-indexed annuities haven't traditionally been available to RIAs," said RetireOne President Ed Mercier. "As this bull market continues, people are growing nervous that a correction will happen soon. Annuity companies have recently begun to create no-load or fee-based FIAs for RIAs and their clients. The timing is perfect. Now they can defend their clients' portfolios against losses with principal protection solutions that weren't available 10 years ago, during the last recession. That's especially critical for investors in the five years prior to or in retirement."

Great American Life^® partnered with Dr. Wade Pfau and InStream Solutions to create a portfolio simulator that incorporates the Index Protector 7 as an asset class in hypothetical client portfolios. Using historical market returns from 2003 – 2017, the Monte Carlo tool simulates the effects of allocating a portion of a portfolio to the Index Protector 7. RIAs and their clients may adjust their allocations and explore the probability of different outcomes in a variety of historical market conditions.

According to Tony Compton, Divisional Vice President of B/D and RIA Sales for Great American Life, "One of the headwinds we face as a provider of no-load FIAs is educating investment advisors about today's annuities. Annuities designed for the Registered Investment Advisory Channel are transparent and simpler to understand. They can work very well as a fixed income alternative, especially in the current interest rate environment. Our work with Dr. Pfau shows how insuring a portion of a portfolio against losses can affect portfolio performance over a 10-year time frame. The Index Protector 7 is specifically designed for this market, and our new portfolio simulator helps illustrate its value. We look forward to working with the experts at RetireOne to help advisors and their clients navigate market and interest rate volatility."

In addition to their collaboration with InStream, Great American Life has made significant investments in technology integrations with Quovo, Tamarac, Orion and others. "Great American Life has been an important relationship for us," said Mr. Mercier. "They understand how important it is for their products to be linked to RIA technologies. Fiduciaries want to log into their portfolio management software and see all of their client assets in one place. They want simplicity. Great American Life's tremendous tools and integrations make that possible."