American Skandia Life Assurance Corp.

American Skandia Life Assurance Corp. was purchased by Prudential and was renamed Prudential Annuities. The company specializes in serving the long-term financial needs of individuals who work with registered financial professionals. Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corp. is authorized to conduct business in all 50 states.

Products

Prudential Annuities (formerly American Skandia Life Assurance Corp.) offers variable annuities of many different kinds, including Optimum, Advisors Choice, APEX and ASL. This includes a death benefit if the annuity holder dies before he or she starts receiving income from the annuity; enhanced options for death benefits are also available for purchase. Prudential Annuities also offers its customers Prudential Annuities Optional Living Benefits for an additional fee. This product offers guaranteed payment amounts to the account holder to prevent customers from outliving their investment income. Subaccounts for different investment strategies are available as well. For example, ProFund VP portfolios are available for specific industries, such as technology, health care, internet, financials or consumer services. Several different options are available for short-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap, including both growth and value portfolios for each.

History

American Skandia was established in 1987 as a financial services company by Skandia Insurance Co. Ltd. American Skandia was created with the intent of developing a new type of company that remains unbiased due to the use of external money managers. In 1995, American Skandia Life released the first multimedia sales support in its industry, called the Assess CD-ROM. In 1997, American Skandia Advisor Funds launched. Prudential Financial Inc. acquired American Skandia Life on May 1, 2003. In 2007, Prudential changed the name of American Skandia to Prudential Annuities.

Ratings

Prudential Annuities (formerly American Skandia Life Assurance Corp.) was rated by A.M. Best at A+, by Fitch Ratings at AA- and by Standard & Poor's at AA. These ratings were current as of December 2008.