DST's Vision® to Team Up with AnnuityNet
Together, Vision and AnnuityNet will provide complete variable annuity order entry,
inquiry, and transaction capabilities
March 13, 2002
KANSAS CITY, MO. (March 13, 2002)- Vision®, the portal of choice for financial advisors, has announced a new relationship with AnnuityNet, the leading eCommerce provider of online technology for the annuity industry. The strategic relationship with AnnuityNet will build on the recent announcement that Nationwide Financial, Manulife Financial, Pacific Life, and The Hartford intend to make their variable annuity contracts available through Vision (www.dstvision.com) in July of 2002.
DST's Vision is an interactive Web site that provides comprehensive customer account/contract information and transaction capabilities, in real time with a single sign-on, to the financial planning community. The added access to top annuity products from major insurance carriers, coupled with AnnuityNet's intelligent application and workflow wizards, will provide the Vision user community with significant efficiencies and productivity enhancements for the sale and servicing of variable annuities. The bottom line result for financial advisors will be less time spent on paperwork and more time available for managing the customer relationship.
AnnuityNet's online technology, which will be available through Vision, supports the sale and service of annuity products from multiple insurance carriers. A signature capability of the AnnuityNet system is efficient end-to-end processing that speeds the sales cycle by incorporating automated wizards that streamline the application process and eliminate common errors. Other key benefits of the platform are built-in suitability and compliance checks, and straight-through paperless processing that electronically delivers the application to the carrier back office systems, often via the NSCC's IPS service.
"This important software integration allows both companies to align marketing strategies for products that are aimed at the same market segment while adding value and easier workflow for independent reps that use the Vision platform," said Kyle Mallot, DST Client Services Officer. "With the integration of Vision and AnnuityNet technology, advisors benefit from a single point of access for processing new applications, initiating transactions, and obtaining real-time access to customer account and contract information for both mutual fund and annuity business."
"DST's Vision is a great platform, and this relationship will extend its capabilities by integrating another great product, AnnuityNet technology," said AnnuityNet Sr. Vice President Steve Dunlap. "Annuities represent a significant percentage of an advisor's product kit, and this added ability to easily and efficiently sell annuity products from top carriers will make Vision a true one-stop-shop for an advisor's entire book of business."
Vision provides comprehensive online access to an advisor's book-of-business. In addition to products from Lincoln Financial Group and the recently announced variable annuity product offerings, Vision provides access to over 260 mutual fund companies including such fund giants as Alliance Capital, American Funds, AIM, MFS Investment Management, and OppenheimerFunds, Inc.
DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE: DST) provides sophisticated information processing and computer software services and products that help clients improve productivity, increase efficiencies, and provide higher levels of customer service. DST is organized domestically and internationally into three operating segments: Financial Services, Customer Management, and Output Solutions. DST operates one of the most advanced data centers in the world,
which provides information-processing services to support the products within each operating segment. These products are further enhanced through the integration of DST's advanced technology and e-commerce solutions.
AnnuityNet, Inc., a Leesburg, VA-based software technology company, pioneered the Web-based approach to powering transactions in the annuity market space with an Internet platform that connects all industry constituencies - carriers and manufacturers, distributors and point of sale representatives, and customers - into a seamless, secure and information-rich process. After becoming the first company to engineer paperless annuities on the Web, AnnuityNet designed and developed technology solutions for financial services institutions that are transforming the way the industry sells and services annuities. Marking an Internet record, AnnuityNet's Web technology processed more than $2 billion in annuity transactions during 2001. AnnuityNet was founded in 1997 by well-known actuary and entrepreneur Shane Chalke, and is owned by a blue-ribbon consortium of financial industry organizations including GE Equity, Lincoln Financial Group, Conning Capital Partners, Keyport Life Insurance Co., and Bank One. The company's Web site address is www.annuitynet.com.
Securities offered through AnnuityNet Insurance Agency, Inc., a broker-dealer.
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