Achaean Teams With Insurer to Create an Inflation-Friendly Income Annuity

What You Need to Know

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Achaean Financial wants to offer your clients another way to create a lifetime stream of retirement income.

The Lake Forest, Illinois-based financial products developer is joining with National Western Life Insurance Co, to create a single-premium immediate annuity, or SPIA, that will include a patented type of income increase feature that may help a retiree cope with inflation.

The companies hope to bring a new SPIA based on Achaen’s Income Plus+ concept by Sept. 30.

What It Means

Life and annuity product designers know your clients are clamoring for inflation protection. They’re working on it.

The Achaean Product

A SPIA is a product that can convert one large premium payment into a stream of lifetime income.

Achaean says it has come up with a way for a SPIA to accumulate extra value in good years and use the extra value to boost income payments.

Achaean is led by Lorry Stensrud,a former CEO of Lincoln Financial’s Lincoln Retirement division.

Another executive on the Achaean team, Lawrence Ryan, the executive vice president, worked in derivatives at Merrill Lynch, Prudential and UBS before moving to Praetorian Advisors.

Many modern annuity managers depend heavily on derivatives arrangements to crediting rate option menus and manage product risk.