In another step forward into the defined contribution market, Allianz Life announced today that it has teamed up with Morningstar Investment Management LLC to help individuals allocate their retirement savings to its annuity products through the Morningstar Retirement Manager service.
The Allianz Lifetime Income+ Annuity with the Lifetime Income Benefit will be the first product to be added as Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America enters the DC market, a strategy the Minneapolis-based company unveiled in July with the launch of the aforementioned annuity product.
Morningstar Retirement Manager is a managed accounts and advice service that helps individuals at every stage of their retirement journey with personalized and independent advice on how much to save, how to invest, when to take Social Security, and more. The service will even manage an individual’s investment strategy on an ongoing basis.
The addition of the Allianz Life annuity means Morningstar Retirement Manager users with access to the annuity through their retirement plan can contribute to the new product designed to help them mitigate against risk in retirement via guaranteed income. Only individuals whose retirement plans offers both Morningstar Retirement Manager and the Allianz Life annuity will have access to this expanded service offering, the company said in an Aug. 17 statement.
“Morningstar Investment Management is an established leader in retirement services that will help us reach many more people seeking guaranteed income options as part of their retirement plan,” said Matt Gray, Head of Employer Markets, Allianz Life. “Through Morningstar Retirement Manager, individuals receive recommendations to help ensure that they are allocating the right amount of their investable assets to guaranteed income at the right time for what could likely be a lengthy retirement.”
Allianz Lifetime Income+ is a fixed index annuity that the company says offers innovative design features including growth potential, protection from market loss, and guaranteed lifetime income through the Lifetime Income Benefit, which has the potential to increase annually for life to help address the effects of inflation.
“As a new entrant into this market, our relationship with Morningstar Investment Management puts in place an immediate and strong infrastructure that will enable us to better reach and serve the growing defined contribution market. This relationship will serve to simplify the integration of annuities into sponsored plans, which is an important step in making guaranteed income options more widely available,” Gray added.
“Morningstar Retirement Manager has been helping retirees spend down their retirement savings in a sustainable way for over a decade,” said Brock Johnson, president of Global Retirement and Workplace Solutions at Morningstar Investment Management. “Our ability to help individuals determine how to allocate to guaranteed income products like Allianz Life Income+ gives us more flexibility to help individuals achieve their retirement goals.”
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Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
