Phoenix and Jefferson National to Target Fee-Based Advisers

The Phoenix Companies, Inc., and Jefferson National Life Insurance Company have formed a strategic alliance to target the rapidly growing segment of fee-based advisers in wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, and financial institutions.

Under the alliance, the companies will leverage Jefferson National’s technology platform, designed expressly to serve the fee-based market, and Phoenix’s product expertise in applying living benefits riders, such as the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit, to financial products, according to a press release.

“With Phoenix’s distribution network in wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, and financial institutions, and Jefferson National’s proven track record of innovating the way that annuities are priced and sold, together we are poised to penetrate the rapidly growing number of fee-based advisers who are attracting more customers to these distribution channels,’ said Laurence Greenberg, president and chief executive officer of Jefferson National Life Insurance Company, in the release.

Greenberg noted that numerous industry sources, including Tiburon, Cerulli, and FRC, say both wirehouses and regional broker-dealers have been actively encouraging the transition to a fee-based model. Assets managed by fee-based and fee-only advisers have steadily increased from roughly $1.5 trillion in 2002 to more than $2.2 trillion in 2006, and the broader fee-based market is forecast to increase to more than $10 trillion by 2010, according to the release.

More about Jefferson National can be found at www.jeffnat.com, and more about the Phoenix Companies can be found at www.phoenixwm.com.

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