Product Watch: Ameritas offers Morningstar tool to guide selection

Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. in Lincoln, Neb., will offer the Morningstar Asset Allocator tool for several of the company’s securities-related product lines.

It is being added to the Overture variable life insurance and variable-annuity products from Ameritas Variable Life Insurance Co.It is being offered on select products as part of 401(k) plans administered by Ameritas Life’s retirement plans division. Ameritas Direct offers that allocator through the Ameritas Life Low-Load Series of life insurance and annuity products marketed directly to consumers and through fee-based financial professionals.

The Morningstar Asset Allocator for Ameritas Life explores the benefits of asset allocation and how it works to diversify holdings, balance risk and reward, and plan for the long term.

Clients are asked seven questions that assess their attitudes toward risk.

The results are then used to identify one of the five portfolio models: aggressive, capital growth, balanced, moderate or conservative.

Clients select investment options based upon their model portfolio for the contract or policy that they are purchasing.

SunAmerica adds a variable annuity

SunAmerica Inc. in Los Angeles has launched a variable annuity, Polaris Protector. It is said to offer greater protection to buyers through its enhanced Income Protector feature as well as an additional money manager, WM Advisors Inc.

Polaris Protector will be offered initially through SunAmerica’s wirehouse distribution partners.

The Income Protector option offers two levels of protection: Income Protector Base and Income Protector Plus. For an additional fee, each level of protection lets investors know today exactly what their minimum guaranteed retirement income can be, regardless of market conditions, if they elect to take income (or annuitize) under the program.

The guaranteed income level for Income Protector Base’s calculations are based upon total purchase payments minus withdrawals and other reductions. Income Protector Plus provides an extra degree of protection with a 6% compounded annual growth rate applied to the income benefit base.

Both options have a 10-year waiting period before the client can begin receiving income. In addition, both options can be stepped up to take advantage of contract growth, resetting the 10-year waiting period.

Polaris Protector continues many of the features and benefits of Polaris II, including a choice of two death benefits at no extra cost, an earnings enhancement option, spousal continuation, the ability to earn upfront and deferred bonus payments, and preservation of principal while still providing exposure to the greater growth potential of equity markets.

`Customized’ annuity from New England

New England Financial in Boston is offering a new unbundled variable-annuity product, American Forerunner Series. The annuities offer features that can be tailored to meet each client’s needs.

Features include:

* Guaranteed minimum income benefit rider. The feature guarantees a fixed income for life regardless of the actual performance of the contract, and can be exercised after a 10-year waiting period.

* Earnings preservation benefit rider. The rider is designed to help offset the impact of federal income taxes on the death benefit.

Also offered are three death-benefit choices:

* Protection of principal. Beneficiaries are paid the greater of the contract value or total purchase payments (adjusted proportionately for withdrawals).

* Protection of principal and earnings. With the annual step-up death benefit (at an additional annual cost of 0.10% of the contract value, excluding the fixed account), beneficiaries are paid the greatest of the contract value, the total purchase payments (adjusted proportionately for withdrawals) or the highest anniversary value.

* Protection of principal and earnings. With the annual step-up or 5% annual increase death benefit (at an additional annual cost of 0.25% of the contract value, excluding the fixed account), beneficiaries are paid the greatest of four amounts – the contract value, the total purchase payments, the highest anniversary value or a 5% annual increase.

The 5% increase is adjusted proportionately for withdrawals through the contract anniversary immediately prior to the contract owner’s 81st birthday.

NetStreet opens site to outsiders

The online services group of NetStreet Financial Inc., an investment banking firm in Palm Desert, Calif., now offers its services free to non-member investors.

NetStreet’s website – netstreetfinancial.com – allows investors to interact with other investors and gather information on private-equity investing and private placements.

NetStreet targets companies in any industry that possess strong management, a history of growth and a clear exit strategy, and that require funding ranging from $1 million to $20 million.

Members also are notified of new companies listed in the “Members Only” section.

Neuberger Berman offers a website

Nb.com is a new website from Neuberger Berman Inc., the New York money manager. The company says that visitors who answer a few questions will find on their return trips to the website that information has been tailored to address their personal investment preferences.

The visitor accesses information by selecting one of three paths: individual investor, institutional investor or financial adviser. If the visitor elects to register, a few short questions are asked.

Examples of the questions are:

* What kinds of products and services are you interested in?

* What subjects would you like to hear more about?

* What sorts of articles are you most likely to read?

The site then customizes the information and product offerings based on the answers provided. For example, information about high-net-worth separate-account management may be provided, as well as articles about charitable giving and tax planning.

Schwab unit adds management tools

Performance Technologies Inc., a Charles Schwab Corp. subsidiary in San Francisco, has enhanced its tools for investment advisers.

It has upgraded the Centerpiece portfolio management system and the Junxure contact management and office automation software, and it is adding a new product, genTrade.

The enhancements include allowing portable document format versions of reports, allowing e-mailing of individual portabledocument-format reports to clients, providing on-demand client portfolio reporting with eReports/Live, and other features.

Through genTrade, an order generation and management system, advisers can quickly generate accurate trade orders and then automatically submit them to custodians.

With genTrade, users can block multiple orders together for submission to the users’ custodian, automatically check minimum cash balance and discretionary status before an order is placed, and perform other functions.

Morningstar offers tools for advisers

Morningstar Inc. in Chicago now offers Morningstar Advisor Workstation at morningstaradvisor.com.

The online tool combines daily updates of stock and mutual fund information, daily security and portfolio level alerts, portfolio analysis and asset allocation tools, hypothetical illustrations, client management tools, and individual and batch report processing capabilities.

Morningstar Advisor Workstation also provides institutions and their representatives with research, planning and proposal tools.

Financial institutions can customize the tools they make available to their representatives, define which investments advisers will view, control access to the planning tools, specify activity sequences and customize features and methodologies, including asset allocation.

Bank One adds retail features

Through its website, bankone .com, Bank One Corp. in Chicago now enables consumers to calculate their financial needs for retirement or college and compare the advantages of debt consolidation and a home equity line of credit.

With the site’s finance section, consumers can enter financial information into Bank One’s online planner and then evaluate how various alternatives could improve their financial situations. After customers have determined the best route, they can review the various home equity loans offered by Bank One.

The retirement calculator enables a customer to build a plan for retirement and then electronically forward it to a Bank One investment representative for additional assistance.

The site also allows consumers to create graphs of their financial situation and compare them with those of their economic peers.