What does retirement look like to you? Maybe you’re traveling across the world? Or picking up a new hobby? Or maybe it’s just some much-deserved downtime? Either way, we all want the same thing... ...to know that our investment for retirement has a level of protection when the market is bad... ...and has the opportunity to grow when the market is good. Retirement investing, though a smart option for many, also comes with unpredictability, which is why planning for retirement is important to meet your needs. You know you can’t risk everything, and you can’t protect everything, but there is a way that you can have some of both. Structured Capital Strategies PLUS® variable and index-linked deferred annuity offers some downside protection up to 40% of investment losses and allows you to take advantage of market growth potential.
Curious about how it works? We’ll break it down for you. You can invest in Structured Capital Strategies PLUS ® through the Structured Investment Option. Unlike an index fund, this way of investing tracks the performance of an index as we promise to provide a level of downside protection and help take advantage of market growth potential. With this type of investment, you can choose a level of protection against losses. So, when the market goes down you can protect up to 40% of your investment. Plus, you’ll know up front exactly how much you could gain based on a predetermined Performance Cap Rate, which is the highest rate of return you can get after different durations, depending on Standard, Annual Lock, Dual Direction, Step Up, Dual Step Up, Enhanced Upside and Loss Limiter Segments. All of which adds up to more control over your investments, and your future. Who doesn’t like the sound of that? And there’s more. There are no explicit fees in the Structured Investment Option. Expenses related to administration, sales, and the segment type holding account are built in when establishing the Performance Cap Rate. Which means you’ll get to lower your overall portfolio costs since no explicit fees apply to the portion of your portfolio that is invested in this option. And, you’ll get to defer paying taxes until you decide to withdraw your money.
Here’s how it works. It’s a simple, three-step process. First, you’ll choose what you want to invest in. Second, you’ll choose an investment strategy. And third, you’ll select an investment protection level, called a buffer. Now when you’re choosing a level of protection, what you’re essentially doing is partially protecting your investments from market volatility by creating a buffer to minimize potential losses. Let’s say you choose a 20% buffer. If the market goes down, you don’t have to worry about losing any money up to 20%. That’s because the Segment Buffer will absorb the loss for you unless the negative return exceeds the Segment Buffer. Depending on the segment option you select, there could be a substantial loss of principal if the loss exceeds the Segment Buffer. And your buffer is balanced out by a performance cap, meaning your investment has the potential to grow up to a certain point, depending on the size of your buffer. In other words, more protection from losses means a lower performance cap. Less protection means a higher performance cap.
We understand that everyone’s different, so that’s why we’ve made this program customizable. When it comes to an investment strategy, you have options depending on how long you’d like to track the performance at a given time. There are seven different strategies that let you participate in potential market growth. With Standard Segments, you can choose to partially protect your investment against up to 40% loss in a volatile market for a 1 and 6-year maturity duration. And you can still invest in indices of your choice for potential growth up to a performance cap. The second investment strategy is called the Annual Lock Segments. With this option, you’ll be partially protected against up to 10% loss each year, and will still be able to lock in potential gains up to a cap. Additionally, the performance cap rate does not change throughout the 6 years, so you can have confidence knowing from the beginning what growth potential you can have every year.
The third investment strategy is called the Dual Direction Segments. With Dual Direction Segments, you have an opportunity to make money when the benchmark index is both up and down. It lets you lock in potential growth that tracks the benchmark index, up to a cap that’s set up front. When the index goes down, your investment will receive a positive return of the same percentage for loss up to and inclusive of -20% at 6-year maturity, or up to -15% if you choose a 1-year time frame. If the benchmark index shows a loss of more than the Segment Buffer you elected, you can still stay confident because you receive a level of protection against loss up to -20%. The fourth investment strategy is called the Enhanced Upside Segment. This option allows for potential return higher than that of S&P 500 at 6-year or 1-year maturity. The Enhanced Upside Segment multiplies positive index performance rates by an Enhanced Upside Rate to increase the Segment Rate of Return up to the Performance Cap Rate.
The fifth investment strategy is called the Step Up Segments. With the Step Up option, you’ll be invested for 1 or 6 years and partially protected against up to 15% loss. If the index has a return that’s zero or more at the end of the year, your investment grows by the Performance Cap Rate. With this innovative, upside guaranteed return, you’ll know exactly what your investment value may step up to! The sixth investment strategy is called the Dual Step Up Segments. With Dual Step Up Segments, If the index return is greater than your chosen segment buffer at the end of 1- year period, you’ll receive a guaranteed return equal to the performance cap rate. If the index return is negative below the segment buffer, you’ll still be protected up to 10% or 15%.
The seventh investment strategy is called the Loss Limiter Segments. Loss Limiter 90 Segments track the performance of the S&P 500 over a 1-year period and guarantee you can never lose more than 10% of your investment at maturity. The -10% Segment Buffer protects your investment from the first 10% of loss, then the Segment Investment Protection guarantees you can never lose more than 10% past the Segment Buffer, no matter how far the index drops. Similarly, Loss Limiter 95 Segments guarantee you can never lose more than 5% of your investment at the end of the 6-year period. At the same time, you have the opportunity to make money up to a performance cap rate with both loss limiter options.
Lastly, when it comes to choosing where to invest your money, there are options that range from US corporations - both big and small - to international markets. As you can see, there are a lot of options with Structured Capital Strategies PLUS®. And we made it that way so you can achieve a level of confidence with your investment. Reaching your retirement goals is made all the more possible when you have a level of downside protection from losses. So whether you see yourself visiting Rome...taking a pottery class...or lounging in a hammock... No matter where you are, retire with confidence, knowing that your investments have a built-in level of protection.
