Fidelity Significantly Expands Distribution Through Insurance Companies
The Hartford Adds Five Fidelity VIP Portfolios to its Popular Variable Annuity Product Line
BOSTON, May 9, 2005 - Fidelity Investments today announced The Hartford, the No.1 provider of variable insurance products in the U.S.1, has added five Fidelity VIP Portfolios to its Director M variable annuity product.
The relationship with The Hartford significantly expands the distribution of Fidelity's VIP (Variable Insurance Product) Portfolios through insurance companies. Fidelity's VIP Portfolios have $54 billion assets and are distributed through more than 50 insurance companies.2
The five VIP portfolios added to The Hartford's Director M include:
• VIP Contrafund®, managed by Will Danoff. Danoff is a 19-year Fidelity veteran who has been managing the $13.3 billion VIP Contrafund since January 1995;
• VIP Equity-Income, managed by Stephen Petersen. Petersen is a 25-year Fidelity veteran who has been managing the $10.8 billion VIP Equity-Income Portfolio since January 1997;
• VIP Growth, managed by Jennifer Uhrig. Uhrig is an 18-year Fidelity veteran who has been managing the $8.9 billion VIP Growth Portfolio since January 1997;
•VIP Mid Cap, managed by Tom Allen. Allen is a 10-year Fidelity veteran who has been managing the $4.3 billion VIP Mid Cap Portfolio since June 2001; and
• VIP Value Strategies, managed by Harris Leviton. Leviton is a 19-year Fidelity veteran who has been managing the $479.1 million VIP Value Strategies Portfolios since it was launched in February 2002.
"The Hartford and Fidelity is a powerful combination," said Joseph P. LoRusso, president, Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company. "The addition of five VIP portfolios to Hartford's Director M program gives advisors, and their clients, access to some of the industry's most competitive portfolios, and helps make a strong product line even stronger.
"Fidelity's investment management capabilities, combined with the strength of our relationship management organization and the Fidelity brand, uniquely position Fidelity as a provider that can help insurers, such as The Hartford, add value to their insurance product line-up," added LoRusso. "Having the VIP Portfolios available through annuities at leading insurance companies will likely play an important role in our growth, especially as the 76 million Baby Boomers approach retirement and begin to seek products that can convert financial assets into sources of lifetime income."
This is the first time that The Hartford has offered a multi-manager version of its Director M variable annuity.3
VIP portfolios are investment options available exclusively through insurance companies' variable insurance products. Fidelity currently manages 30 VIP portfolios and has been serving the variable insurance industry with a dedicated business unit since 1986.
About Fidelity Investments Institutional Services
Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company provides investment management services through investment professionals at financial institutions nationwide, including wirehouses, regional and independent broker/dealers, banks, trust companies and insurance companies. The company offers Fidelity Advisor Funds®, Variable Insurance Product (VIP) Portfolios, systematic investment plans, institutional money market funds and a comprehensive line of retirement products and services. Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company's total assets under management were more than $192 billion as of March 31, 2005. For more information, advisors can visit http://advisor.fidelity.com.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $2.1 trillion, including managed assets of $1.1 trillion as of March 31, 2005. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 19 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.Fidelity.com.
Please carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. For this and other information on any Fidelity Advisor Fund or variable annuity offered in your state, call your investment or insurance professional for a free Advisor fund or VIP prospectus, or visit advisor.fidelity.com for a free Advisor fund prospectus. Read it carefully before you invest or send money.
Diversification does not ensure a profit or guarantee against a loss.
Fidelity Advisor Funds are available through investment professionals.
VIP refers to Variable Insurance Products. Annuities are long-term investments, access to funds may be limited by tax penalties and surrender charges, and income taxes are due upon withdrawal of funds.
The VIP portfolios are available as investment options within a variable life insurance policy or variable annuity contract issued by life insurance companies.
Fidelity Advisor Funds and variable insurance products are neither insured nor guaranteed by the FDIC.
Fidelity Investments & Pyramid Design, Fidelity Advisor Funds and Contrafund are registered service marks of FMR Corp.
The Hartford and Fidelity Investments are independent organizations and are not affiliated.
Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc.
82 Devonshire Street, Boston, MA 02109
1 Source: Fidelity analysis using asset data from Strategic Insight.
2 As of March 31, 2005.
3 Fidelity is one of six new third-party investment managers being added to The Hartford's Director M annuity.
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