GALVESTON, TX — American National is enhancing and expanding its portfolio of industry leading indexed universal life products. Signature Protection IUL provides a new, safe, and effective means for customers to leave their loved ones a legacy. It can also serve as an emergency or supplemental retirement fund with cash value available if circumstances change. Signature Protection is unique in the way of indexed universal life products as it will offer guaranteed death benefit protection from ages 80 to 121. Signature Protection IUL retains several popular features seen in our other indexed products such as Accelerated Underwriting and various loan options. This product also includes, at no additional premium, Living Benefits covering chronic, critical, and terminal illness in the form of Accelerated Benefit Riders.
Signature Protection IUL offers five index crediting strategies. These strategies will be based on the performance of the S&P MARC 5% Excess Return Index, Nasdaq-100® Index, and the S&P 500® Index.
David A. Behrens, Executive Vice President of American National Insurance Company stated, “This product offers a competitive alternative to other indexed products on the market. Protection can help provide financial stability while also allowing flexibility to consumers with various financial goals.”
S&P 500® Index
The S&P 500® is a capitalization weighted index that tracks the performance of 500 large companies listed on US stock exchanges. The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities. There is over USD 11.2 trillion indexed or benchmarked to the index, with indexed assets comprising approximately USD 4.6 trillion of this total. The index includes 500 leading companies and covers approximately 80% of available market capitalization. The companies that are tracked are selected by committee and must meet certain criteria before making the list of eligible companies.
S&P MARC 5% Excess Return Index (S&P MARC 5% Index)
The S&P MARC 5% Index is a derivative index of the S&P 500® designed to manage market volatility. The S&P MARC 5% (Multi-Asset Risk Control) Index seeks to provide multi-asset diversification within a simple risk weighting framework, tracking three underlying component indices that represent equities, commodities, and fixed income. For purposes of the S&P MARC 5% Index, an excess return version of the S&P 500® is calculated from the S&P 500® Total Return Index and is used as the underlying equities component index. The weighted strategy is rebalanced daily to maintain a target volatility of 5%. In low-volatility environments, the S&P MARC 5% Index risk control mechanism increases market exposure to riskier assets by increasing the allocation to the index (up to a leveraged position of 150%).
Nasdaq-100 Index®
The Nasdaq-100 Index® is a modified market capitalization weighted index that tracks the performance of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market® based on market capitalization. The index reflects companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain securities of financial companies including investment companies. The companies selected are based on an annual ranking of all eligible companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market®. The value for this index is published multiple times a day and includes an opening market value and a closing market value.