There are two similar job offers on the table. One offers a salary with a cap on earning potential and the other has that same salary, but without the earnings cap and a profit-sharing bonus. Which one would you take? The one with more earning potential and the extra profit-sharing bonus, right? If so, when it comes to the RILA (buffer annuity) market, you just sold yourself on Athene Amplify.
Athene’s Amplify is not your typical variable index annuity. Like other variable index annuities, the Athene Amplify contract gives you upside potential with downside protection. The difference is that the upside potential in the Amplify contract is where my above profit-sharing bonus scenario comes in to play. For example, right now you can build the contract to participate in the S&P 500 Index with no cap and a 140% upside participation rate. On the downside with this option, you still have a 20% buffer built in to protect against losses.
This specific build is a 6-year point-to-point term like many other variable index annuities out there. But I want to be clear about one thing because it slipped by me the first time I looked into the contract, as I was used to the way just about every other RILA/variable index annuity works. The 140% is not a cap. The design I mentioned above is an uncapped design. The contract is giving you 140% of your index returns and a downside protection of 20%. In comparison, where other variable annuities may give you a cap of around 100% growth on 20% downside protection, Athene’s Amplify contract will not cap that growth and it will add 40% to whatever that uncapped growth number is.
Is this too good to be true? No, but it is too good to be free and that takes us to a second difference between the Athene Amplify contract and most other variable index annuities. The Athene Amplify contract described above does carry a 0.95% annual charge. So, I guess you would have to ask yourself one question when considering a variable index annuity. Do you want one with no explicit fees to the client, or is 0.95% a year worth an extra 40% added to your earnings?
For more information on the Athene Amplify contract, please see the attached material and/or contact the Athene annuity sales desk at 888.266.8489.
Contact Micah Hesting for more information:
Relationships/Business Development Strategist
Ext. 113
micah@leadersgroup.net