Fidelity Investments has added four mutual funds to a variable annuity product it launched in 2005, opting for simplicity in an era where advisors and clients are wary of complexity in variable annuities.
The Fidelity Personal Retirement Annuity was designed for workers without workplace retirement savings plans, or who have maxed-out other savings mechanism like 401(k)s and IRAs, says Jeffrey K. Cimini, president of Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Co. The Boston-based mutual fund company added the BlackRock Global Allocation V.I. Fund, the Franklin U.S. Government Fund, the Templeton Global Bond Securities Fund and the PIMCO VIT CommodityRealReturn Strategy Portfolio to the annuity.
The four mutual funds brings the total number of funds in the annuity to more than 60, Cimini said in a recent interview with Financial Planning. The fund has $10 billion in total assets, and had $2 billion in total sales by the end of 2012.
Although the fund is designed for workers without access to workplace retirement plans, it attracts a wide swath of investors, including those with investable household assets of around $800,000.
The Personal Retirement Annuity lets investors accumulate savings after taxes, and on a tax-deferred basis. Fidelity charges 25 basis points on all new contracts with an initial purchase payment under $1 million, and 10 basis points on new contracts more than $1 million, Cimini said.
