The Hartford enhances pension and TIP products

Enhancements to Hartford Platinum and the Trustee Investment Plan now give savers greater investment flexibility with two new asset classes and seven new funds.

Hartford Life Limited, a subsidiary of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: HIG), today announced several enhancements to its personal pension product to provide customers with greater investment choice and portfolio flexibility.

Increasing interest in The Hartford's pension products, Hartford Platinum and the Trustee Investment Plan (TIP), prompted the firm to add seven new funds and two new asset classes, International Property and Commodities. The new funds introduced by The Hartford are: JP Morgan Natural Resources, New Star International Property, Schroder Global Property Securities, Artemis Strategic Bond, Fidelity European Opportunities, Invesco Perpetual Monthly Income Plus and Schroder European Alpha.

There are now 97 funds available through Hartford Platinum and the Hartford TIP, all of which are available with the optional guarantee, the Guaranteed Retirement Income plan (GRIP),

"The enhancements to The Hartford's pension products will provide our customers additional choice and flexibility. The exposure clients will now have to commodities and international property funds reflects the desire we are increasingly seeing for a broader range of investments as savers look to grow their retirement savings," said Michael Rudge, Managing Director, UK Branch, for The Hartford.

Commenting on the enhancements, Richard Romer-Lee, Research Director and Founder of Old Broad Street Research Ltd, a leading investment research company commented: "The fact that these new funds are available with the Hartford's guaranteed retirement income plan really highlights the strength of The Hartford's confidence and experience in risk management as well as their core proposition - growing your investment while having the peace of mind in knowing that, if markets fall, your income is guaranteed."

In addition to the new funds and asset classes being made available, The Hartford announced further changes to provide greater flexibility in asset allocation for clients self-selecting funds and have also revised the asset allocation for the managed portfolios.

Self selecting clients can still invest up to 100% of their investment in balanced funds and can now put up to 80 percent of the remainder in equities (previously the limit was 75 percent). Up to five percent can be invested in each of the UK property, Global Property and Commodities funds.

The managed portfolios now contain new funds, including the Schroders Global Property Securities Fund and the BlackRock UK Dynamic Fund.

Market reaction to Hartford Platinum, which has been available in the UK for just over a year, has been extremely positive. The Hartford have been voted one of the UK's top three drawdown providers and Hartford Platinum has won awards for innovation and exceeded expectations in capturing market share.

"As The Hartford continues to grow in the UK market and appeal to a wider audience, our attention to customer service and customer opinion will stand us in good stead," Rudge said.

"We always seek to provide the best products we possibly can and have introduced the enhancements following feedback from both our customers and key investment research companies such as OBSR."