Advisers have been asking for
investment options that address volatility and tax efficiency, said Michael K.
Reidy, vice president and national sales manager of the RIA and independent
broker-dealer advisory channel at Security Benefit.
The addition of fixed-income, asset-allocation,
global/international and alternative portfolios from fund managers like
Dimensional Fund Advisors and JPMorgan, and new underlying funds from existing
partners like Guggenheim Investments will provide flexibility for advisers,
Reidy said.
The investment subaccount additions
bring the total number of variable account options for the low-cost, fee-only
EliteDesigns Variable Annuity to 269.
Other managers of the portfolios are
Fidelity Investments, Ibbotson Investments, Innealta Capital, Pioneer
Investments, Putnam Investments and Western Asset Management. EliteDesigns
gives advisers and their clients a choice of 38 nationally known asset managers
investing across 36 Morningstar categories.
“We’re very pleased to be able to
offer these brand-new portfolios from investment firms that advisers respect,”
Reidy said. He cited Dimensional Fund Advisors, which has more than $250
billion in assets under management, as the fund family to which advisers were
most committed for three years running, according to a Cogent Research ranking.
The
expansion is timely in light of impending increases to personal income tax
rates and the current investment environment, Reidy noted. As investors,
particularly those in the top tax brackets, look for cost-effective means to
mitigate tax hikes, he feels EliteDesigns may make it easier for advisers to
offer a customizable solution that could also help investors reach long-term
investment goals.
EliteDesigns combines tax deferral
with a fee structure well below that of the average variable annuity and imposes
no surrender charges, redemption fees or trading limits (trading rules apply to
certain subaccounts).
The increased number and variety of
EliteDesigns’ nontraditional and low-correlated investment options, such as the
more than 50 alternative strategies, will be useful in creating meaningful
strategic and tactical asset allocations that better address investors’ loss
aversion in the current post-crisis environment, Reidy said.
More information about EliteDesigns is
here.
Security Benefit is a Guggenheim
Partners company and provider of retirement savings and income vehicles.