Just over a year ago Transamerica Life Insurance Company introduced the Prinicipium II variable annuity product, according to an August 25 company press release entitled “Transamerica’s Principium II Variable Annuity Continues to Gain Market Share.” The product is marketed as a lower-cost variable annuity that has ETF-based sub-accounts, is easy to understand, and offers optional benefits in line with Transamerica’s other products. Transamerica believes itself to be one of the first companies to offer lower-cost options for their investors. They see many of their competitors developing similar variable annuity offerings.
Sales have grown each month in 2009 for Transamerica’s variable annuities and they attribute much of that growth to the Principium II. Investors costs are kept low largely because of the ETF-based sub-account options. Vanguard is the ETF provider for 2 of Transamerica’s sub-account choices because they keep investor costs low and have great expertise in index management. Transamerica’s CEO believes that their lower-cost variable annuity presence is driving the company’s sales success this year.
