AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company has launched its new variable annuity product, Crossings: My Lifetime IRA, designed specifically as a rollover option for employees taking distributions from employer-sponsored retirement plans at Fortune 1000 companies.
Crossings is developed by Corporate Markets, AXA Equitable’s newly created business unit providing retirement plan solutions and strategies. The company said that Crossings is not available through any other business unit.
Crossings also allows the individual to choose from a menu of five asset allocation portfolios, ranging from conservative to aggressive. Each portfolio uses a ‘fund of funds’ approach to allocate its assets across multiple asset classes and investment styles using a number of underlying funds.
The underlying funds use active management as well as passively-managed strategies and exchange-traded funds. The individual’s guaranteed annual payment, or GAP, can increase if the individual defers payments, or if investment gains drive the value of the individual’s account above the initial rollover value.
Bill McDermott, executive vice president of AXA Equitable and head of Corporate Markets, said: The core of the Crossings solution is a variable deferred annuity designed to turn retirement plan assets from defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s and lump sum defined benefit plans, into a guaranteed annual income stream – regardless of underlying investment performance – for as long as the retiree lives.