CHICAGO, Oct. 03, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — North American Company for Life and Health Insurance® today released the NAC VersaChoice 10, a fixed index annuity with an optional rider that allows clients to have more access to more of their money sooner, the first of its kind on the market.
“Retirement savers want three fundamental things when evaluating a vehicle for their retirement money,” said Rob TeKolste, president, Sammons Independent Annuity Group. “First, they want growth potential, second they want downside protection from market drops, and the third thing is having access to their hard-earned dollars in emergencies. The advantage of the NAC VersaChoice 10 fixed index annuity is that it offers all three of these benefits.”
The optional rider, called the enhanced liquidity benefit (ELB), has four features that provide access to the money in the annuity. An annual fee equivalent of 0.50 percent of the contract owner’s accumulated annuity value applies to the ELB rider.
“With the ELB rider, we’ve enhanced two basic annuity features, which include the penalty-free withdrawals benefit as well as the return of premium benefit,” TeKolste said.
TeKolste also recognized the need to access retirement savings if a health event leaves you unable to perform some of the basic activities of daily living. “We built in two additional liquidity benefits to access if you are permanently unable to complete two of the six activities of daily living,” he said. Initial eligibility for these liquidity benefits, and the trigger to turn those benefits on, are based on six activities of daily living – no underwriting or medical exam is required.
In a fixed index annuity, the performance of the account is tied to market performance but is not an actual investment in the stock market. Fixed index annuities offer participation for some of the market’s growth in up times but protection in down times. The premium used to purchase the index will never be at risk of decreasing due to market losses.
ABOUT NORTH AMERICAN COMPANY
North American Company for Life and Health Insurance is a member of Sammons® Financial Group, Inc. Since 1886, North American has established a tradition of providing quality insurance products to consumers throughout the U.S. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of term, universal life, and indexed universal life insurance products. North American also offers a wide variety of traditional fixed and fixed index annuities and consistently ranks among the top fixed index annuity carriers in the U.S. (Source: Wink Sales & Market Report, 2017). For more information, please visit www.northamericancompany.com.
This is not a complete description of all features of the NAC VersaChoiceSM fixed index annuity and only describes one feature. For more information, please see the product brochure for further details on the features, limitations and complete product disclosures. NAC VersaChoiceSM is issued on form NA1012A/ICC17-NA1012A. MVA (contract) by North American Company for Life and Health Insurance®, West Des Moines, IA. This product, its features and riders may not be available in all states or appropriate for all clients. Fixed Index Annuities are not a direct investment in the stock market. They are long term insurance products with guarantees backed by the issuing company. They provide the potential for interest to be credited based in part on the performance of specific indexes, without the risk of loss of premium due to market downturns or fluctuation. Although Fixed Index Annuities guarantee no loss of premium due to market downturns, deductions from your Accumulation Value for additional optional benefit riders could under certain scenarios exceed interest credited to the Accumulation Value, which would result in loss of premium. They may not be appropriate for all clients.
Sammons® Financial Group is comprised of North American Company for Life and Health Insurance®, Midland National® Life Insurance Company, Sammons Retirement Solutions® Inc. and Sammons Financial Network® LLC, member FINRA.
PR33-10-17
Contact: John Myers Associate Vice President Corporate Communications