Investment Products and Service Launches

Transamerica Rolls Out Fee-Based Variable Annuity

Available through broker-dealer managed money platforms, Transamerica’s Variable Annuity I-Share charges an annualized fee based on a percentage of the investor’s assets. There is no commission charge upon purchase and no surrender charge.

“The investment landscape is changing, and we see that investors and their advisers want more options when choosing how they invest,” says Joe Boan, senior vice president with Transamerica. “Transamerica has been helping fee-based advisers and their clients with variable annuities for more than 20 years. The Transamerica Variable Annuity I-Share is intended to help fee-based advisers better serve clients who are planning for retirement income. Transamerica is expanding our retirement planning options to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security.”

Variable annuities are retirement investments that offer tax-deferred treatment of earnings on the investments. The investor can choose lifetime payout options, death benefit options, and additional death distributions when purchasing a variable annuity.

For more information about Transamerica’s Variable Annuity I-Share, visit Transamerica.com.

NEXT: USA Financial Launches Asset Management Platform

Financial Exchange, a turnkey asset management program (TAMP) by USA Financial, offers financial professionals access to dozens of strategies managed by various institutional managers via a unified management account (UMA).

The UMA allows investors wishing to employ various strategies to minimize paperwork and eliminate the need for multiple accounts and different custodial platforms, the firm notes. Financial Exchange has no minimum investment amount, and some strategies can manage $1,000.

"The flexibility and ease to move from one manager's strategy to another makes this platform a sensible alternative to separately managed accounts (SMAs) and mutual fund wrap programs," says Mike Walters, CEO of USA Financial.

Citing the most recent regulatory filings, the firm says managers available on the platform collectively manage in excess of $65 billion. USA Financial reported positive feedback after unveiling the platform to a small group of advisers in October, and it plans to add more money managers as the need arises.

NEXT: Victory Capital Expands ETF Platform

Victory Capital has released VictoryShares, the next innovation in its exchange-traded fund (ETF) platform. This builds upon the firm’s Victory CEMP volatility weighted ETFs, which the firm says have grown to approximately $960 million in assets under management.

Victory’s new lineup will track indexes developed in partnership with NASDAQ. The firm has signed initial registration statements for the new ETFs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and it expects to roll out the new funds during the second quarter of 2017.

“Investors are demanding even greater choice when seeking to diversify beyond traditional active management or to improve upon cap-weighted indexing,” says David Brown, Victory’s Chairman and CEO. “We are pleased to partner with NASDAQ to bring innovative solutions to market that will further support our clients in meeting their investment objectives.”

Victory says its new product line will further its commitment to the strategic beta space and include single- and multi-factor strategies designed to generate a variety of outcomes including maximum diversification, dividend income, downside mitigation, minimum volatility and targeted factor exposure.

“The VictoryShares platform is designed to provide investors with rules-based solutions that bridge the gap between the active and passive elements of their portfolios,” says Mannik Dhillon, CFA, head of investment solutions for Victory. “As investor behavior continues to evolve away from style box investing into factor- and risk-based investing, VictoryShares will serve as building blocks for next-generation portfolios.”

The names of the existing 11 Victory CEMP ETFs will be changed effective January 20, 2017, to reflect the VictoryShares branding. However, their tickers and CUSIP numbers will not change, and there is no change to the underlying CEMP indexes or corresponding methodologies.

For more information, visit victoryshares.com

NEXT: RBC GAM Rolls Out New Class R6 Shares

RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) has released new Class R6 shares for two mutual funds in an effort to offer a greater level of fee transparency to investors in the retirement plan marketplace.

"The industry is constantly evolving in response to regulatory changes, fee compression and the desire for increased transparency,” explains Matthew Appelstein, head of sales and distribution for RBC GAM-US. “With these new solutions, we are pleased to provide U.S. investors with that same level of transparency and market alignment. Looking ahead, we believe that most retirement plans and platforms will consider moving toward the class R6 shares structure. This addition reflects our commitment to our clients and their retirement goals and positions us to continue our aim to deliver exceptional value to our clients."

The new Class R6 shares are the RBC BlueBay Diversified Credit Fund Class R6 and RBC BlueBay Emerging Market Select Bond Fund Class R6. The firm notes that Class R6 shares don’t engage in revenue-sharing and will not pay any kind of intermediary compensation including sub-transfer agency fees for services provided to accounts.

Minimum investments for these Class R6 shares are $1 million each.

RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) provides global investment management services and solutions to individual, high-net-worth and institutional investors. RBC GAM is the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and it includes institutional money managers BlueBay Asset Management and Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management.

NEXT: Transamerica Offers Higher Interest Rates on Annuities

Transamerica announced that it now offers index account cap rates ranging from 2.25% to 4.35% to provide the potential to earn interest based on rates up to the cap, while offering protection of the policy value in fixed index annuities. The firm notes that interest credited to the annuity is based, in part, on the performance of a market index – but will never lose value regardless of how the market performs.

"The opportunity to earn interest offered by Transamerica's fixed index annuities, combined with our unique optional living benefit, are designed to take a lot of guesswork out of people's retirement planning," says Transamerica senior vice president Joe Boan. "These annuities provide upside potential with a guarantee that policy values will not be negatively impacted by market conditions – and the optional living benefit provides a guaranteed retirement income stream, which helps solve one of the greatest challenges that retirees and pre-retirees experience.”

Boan adds, "Transamerica's fixed index annuities now offer customers the ability to obtain higher interest rates on their annuity with 100% downside protection. And by selecting the optional living benefit, individuals can have the confidence of knowing their income stream will be guaranteed to last throughout retirement."

To learn more about Transamerica's fixed index annuities and living benefits, visit www.transamerica.com.