Products May 2, 2012

Great-West Launches Retirement Income Offering

Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company introduced a retirement income product that combines the traits of a mutual fund with a lifetime income guarantee.
Reported by

To help banks meet their clients’ growing demands for retirement offerings that provide a lifetime income guarantee, Great-West introduced Great-West SecureFoundation Smart Future, a retirement income solution for the bank-affiliated broker/dealer market.

The offering enables clients to participate in potential gains in the stock and bond markets while providing an insurance benefit that features a lifetime income guarantee. The product consists of the Maxim SecureFoundation Balanced ETF Portfolio, which invests in a cost-effective portfolio of Vanguard exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as the Great-West SecureFoundation Guarantee, which provides steady income payments for life.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

“Clients enjoy the advantages of a familiar retail mutual fund investment and the benefits of a lifetime income guarantee outside the traditional variable annuity structure,” said Chris Bergeon, vice president of Financial Institutions at Great-West.

The offering is intended to help banks address their clients’ evolving needs, said Jacques Brousseau, national director of retirement income products for the Individual Markets Division at Great-West.

“With fewer employers offering defined benefit plans, clients have to shoulder more of the responsibility for providing their own retirement income,” Brousseau said. “As a result, bank-affiliated broker/dealers are looking for new and better ways to help their clients close this gap. Our retirement income offering delivers an innovative solution that advisers can readily recommend to clients who are looking for savings opportunities that ensure they’ll have guaranteed income throughout their retirement.”

More information on Great-West SecureFoundation Smart Future can be found here.  

  

 

 

  

 

 

Deals & People May 2, 2012

Cambridge Teams with Fiduciary Benchmarks

Cambridge Investment Research Inc. selected Fiduciary Benchmarks to meet ERISA’s 408(b)2 disclosure regulations, slated to go into effect July 1.  
Reported by

 

The independent broker/dealer said it chose Fiduciary Benchmarks for its service and technology solution to help rep/advisers disclose fees, services and fiduciary status to comply with the new regulations.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

“We understand this time of extreme change in the qualified plan market may also give rise to many advisers evaluating whether they can, or want to, continue in the market,” said Amy Webber, president and chief operating officer. “In contrast, given our long-time focus in this market, we have many successful Cambridge advisers across the country seizing the opportunity to work with those advisers stepping back from qualified plans. We also have Cambridge advisers ready to purchase retirement plan business from those electing to omit retirement plans from their business model.”

Fiduciary Benchmarks also enables independent advisers to access benchmarking technology and service that allows the ability to leverage the information from these disclosures to help determine the reasonableness of fees—a stated intent of the regulation. (See “Commonwealth Partners with Fiduciary Benchmarks.”)

 

 

«