Nationwide Financial is targeting the rollover IRA market with a new variable annuity product. The product is called Successor and will be branded as part of "The BEST of AMERICA" program. The insurer will market the product through brokers and to existing retirement clients, according to a spokesperson.

"Retirement plan participants face a number of financial choices at the time of retirement or in the event they make a job change," said Steve Rose, Nationwide Financial vice president of product management. "Plan sponsors often have little or no direction to offer employees with regard to what comes next in retirement planning when they leave that employer."

Successor is designed as a second phase of the retirement plan process, picking up where traditional accumulation products end, according to Nationwide.

It provides 40 underlying investment options from more than one dozen investment management firms. These are the same vehicles as offered to participants through The BEST of AMERICA Group Pension Series. By using the same underlying investments Nationwide hopes to simplify the rollover task for plan participants.

"It is a seamless solution for participants, given the similarity of funds offered in the Successor product and our group retirement plan products," explained Rose. "People generally have a lot to contend with when they make a career change or move into retirement. We want to provide a financial solution that will help make these transitions easier," he added.  

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