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Allstate, Putnam join hands
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March 3, 1999: 8:58 a.m. ET
Insurer, money manager set venture to offer variable insurance products
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The good hands people at Allstate Life said Wednesday they are joining hands with Putnam Investments to provide new variable insurance products.
The agreement calls for Allstate Life, a subsidiary of Allstate Insurance Co. (ALL), the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurance company, and Putnam, one of the nation's oldest and largest money management firms, to focus on jointly creating and distributing a co-branded variable insurance product line.
A variable annuity's value fluctuates with that of an underlying securities portfolio or other index of performance.
In 1998 alone, sales of variable annuities totaled $100 million, according to Louis G. Lower II, chairman and CEO of Allstate Life, bringing the total at year end to more than $700 billion.
"With the U.S. population getting older and living longer," Lower said, "variable annuities are an increasingly attractive population getting older and living longer, variable annuities are an increasingly attractive popular retirement savings tool."
A committee of executives from Allstate and Putnam will manage the partnership. Putnam's portfolio managers will oversee the mutual fund investments and Allstate will manage the insurance assets.
The products will be distributed, via Putnam's wholesaling force, through its partnerships with banks, broker-dealers and financial advisors. Allstate and Putnam expect to begin offering the joint products in May.
The companies manage a combined total of more than $40 billion in variable insurance assets.
Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate closed down 1/16 Tuesday at 38-7/8. 
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