New York, Jan. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flourish, a platform that provides innovative access to financial products that help registered investment advisors (RIAs) secure their clients’ financial futures, today unveiled Flourish Annuities, a new way for RIAs to consider fee-based annuities as an option for client portfolios. 

The $350B annuities market has been on the rise, hitting a sales record of $183B in the first half of last year. However, annuities have often been inaccessible to independent RIAs due to the many complexities and pain points of offering insurance products. Problems ranging from client and adviser user experience challenges to licensing and regulatory requirements, as well as a lack of fee-based products that align with RIA billing standards, have sharply limited RIA adoption of annuities in client portfolios.  

To open this asset class to advisors, Flourish Annuities has alleviated the three key pain points that have historically prevented advisors from including annuities in client portfolios: burdensome, complicated paper applications, commission structures that conflict with a fiduciary approach, and RIA insurance license requirements. To solve these challenges, Flourish Annuities developed a streamlined digital application process with the ability for advisors to pre-fill applications on behalf of clients, created an outsourced insurance desk, eliminating the need for advisors to hold insurance licenses, and assembled a marketplace of fee-based annuities from carefully vetted carriers. Additionally, integrations with major reporting and billing platforms make it easy for advisors to treat annuities like any other asset class. 

“Annuities can bring clear benefits to client portfolios. Until now, the user experience for both advisors and clients has made annuities more trouble than they’re worth for independent RIAs. We’ve confronted these challenges head-on to deliver easy-to-use, compliant access to the world of annuities for advisors looking for better, more differentiated portfolio options,” said Max Lane, Flourish CEO. “Flourish Annuities introduces a convenient way for RIAs to open the door to these tax-advantaged investments for their clients. As a marketplace of fee-based annuities for RIAs and their clients, Flourish Annuities offers RIAs a truly new opportunity to effortlessly differentiate their client portfolios and improve outcomes.” 

Flourish Annuities is operationally streamlined and simplified to save time and minimize complexity. Key features include the Flourish Insurance Agency, a licensed insurance producer and outsourced insurance desk (OID), which eliminates the need for advisors to hold insurance licenses; a digital application process to eliminate complicated paperwork; and a diligently vetted marketplace of annuities from multiple carriers. At launch, the Flourish Annuities marketplace will offer fee-based multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs) and intends to offer additional types of annuities in the future, allowing advisors to easily compare investment options for clients.    

About Flourish
Flourish builds technology that empowers financial advisors, improves financial lives and retirement outcomes, and delivers new and innovative investment options to advisors. Today, the Flourish platform supports more than $4.1 billion in assets under custody and is used by more than 700 wealth management firms representing more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management. Flourish is a wholly-owned, independently operating subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). For more information, visit www.flourish.com. 

Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Flourish Annuities refers generally to the annuity platform operated by Flourish Technologies, LLC, where applicable, and to Flourish Insurance Agency, LLC in its capacity as a licensed insurance producer providing insurance services related to such platform, and where applicable, the individual annuity contracts intended to be purchased by individual clients of registered investment advisors (“RIAs”). 

An annuity is an insurance contract. Annuities shown on the platform are sold through Flourish Insurance Agency, LLC, with offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, a licensed insurance producer, and are issued by one or more approved licensed life insurance companies. The issuing insurance company, not any Flourish company, is solely responsible for its own financial and contractual obligations. All benefits and guarantees of the annuity contract are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. This is not a proposal or a solicitation to purchase insurance.

Marissa Arnold
flourish@marissaarnoldpr.com