Claims to provide wide selection of investment portfolios and downside protection
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company has launched a variable annuity with a dual-account investment platform Retirement Cornerstone, which it claims to transform how investors will view the uses and benefits of variable annuities.
The Retirement Cornerstone is a tax-deferred investment platform that supports two interactive accounts, one focused on the opportunity to maximize investment performance through the money managers and the other is an optional account focused on providing retirement protection, the company said.
According to AXA Equitable, the long-term accumulation account objective provides access to the growth potential in more than 90 investment portfolio choices of asset classes and investment styles. The downside-protection account objective provides a guaranteed income benefit option that invests in asset allocation and index portfolios. The Retirement Cornerstone has a new roll-up rate declared annually at one point above an average of the 10-year treasury rate.
The company claims that the tax-deferred complementary accounts in Retirement Cornerstone offer flexibility and efficiency with respect to the variable annuity. The dual-account platform provides investors an opportunity to pursue investment recovery strategies; access to a platform that gives the investor tax control, by providing for tax-free transfers among investment portfolios.
In addition, the platform also allows the investor to sweep cash tax-free from the long-term accumulation account to the downside income protection account to build lifetime income benefits and respond to changing needs and economic conditions.
Christopher Condron, chairman and chief executive officer of AXA Equitable, said: Last year’s market meltdown was a stark reminder of how vulnerable individuals’ invesssstment portfolios can be. We believe that Retirement Cornerstone represents a unique response to that sense of vulnerability. It can offer an easy way for investors to put cash back to work and take advantage of what they see as the best growth opportunities, as well as providing downside protection for retirement income.