Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Solutions for a low-interest rate environment-Allianz Life


Solutions for a low-interest rate environment-Allianz Life
Income riders
Just five years ago, the 10-year Treasury was around 5.0%. Today, it hovers around 1.5%. In January this year, the Fed announced that economic conditions “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.”
Today’s low interest rate environment creates additional challenges for retirees. The prospect that rates may stay low through 2014 has been challenging for clients looking for sustainable income in retirement. Clients who are faced with the possibility of having less income than they expected generally have just three options:
  1. Reduce their lifestyle and attempt to live on the income they can currently produce
  2. Increase their risk tolerance and attempt to generate more assets by taking on more risk
  3. Spend more of the principal of their savings and hope to not run out of money
For clients who can’t afford to reduce their lifestyle, and are not comfortable increasing their risk, the guaranteed income benefits (may come as additional cost riders) that we offer on our fixed index annuities can help protect clients from running out of income, by providing lifetime income and the potential for income increases following each year their allocations earn interest.

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