Hartford Life Limited, a subsidiary of US-based Hartford Financial Services Group, has added a lock-in feature to the optional capital protection feature of its Hartford Gold unit-linked investment bond.SafetyNet can now lock in up to 10% of capital value per annum, subject to certain conditions.
“A guarantee of principal can easily become redundant mid-way through an investment’s life when it looks fairly certain that your return will exceed the amount you invested. The problem then is that you are paying for a feature that no longer offers any real value,” said marketing managing director John Enos. “In the US, eight in every ten investment bonds The Hartford sells has a guarantee similar to Hartford SafetyNet. We believe that this optional feature will be extremely attractive for cautious investors here in the UK.”
The Hartford is one of the largest financial services and insurance companies in the US, with worldwide revenues of $22.7bn in 2004.
