Annuity Menu Includes Commodities Index
April 22, 2011 by Allison Bell
Published 4/21/2011
A life insurer is appealing to consumers who like hard assets with an indexed annuity that includes a commodities index option.
Symetra Life Insurance Company, a unit of Symetra Financial Corp., Bellevue, Wash. (NYSE:SYA), has included the commodities option in a new, single-premium indexed annuity, the company says.
Annuity holders can allocate assets to a conventional stock index as well as to a commodities index, Symetra says.
The contract also provides access to a fixed account option and a guaranteed minimum value feature.
For the commodities index, Symetra is using the S&P GSCI Index from Standard & Poor’s, New York. Prices of many commodities have been soaring in recent months because of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, concerns about the strength of the U.S. dollar, and fears that farmers may face poor growing conditions in many parts of the world.
– Allison Bell