the Standard Insurance Company?

[Gearhead Jim]

A modest amount of our investment money is in a 457(b) fund, managed by Transamerica. AFAIK, this is the only place where we have the option of a Stable Value Fund.

I'm considering putting some of our fixed income allocation into their stable value fund, "Standard Insurance Company Stable Asset Fund III" which is paying 1.75% for the first quarter, with no interest rate risk and low (but not zero) credit risk.

The company ratings within the last few months are:
Best= A
Fitch= A
S&P= A+
Moody's= A1

Standard gets a lot of complaints about their customer service, but I should be dealing with Transamerica and not Standard.

Most of our outside fixed income money is in insured CD's, but the Stable Value Fund is paying about 1% more, not worth taking a lot of risk for but still nice to get.

Our overall asset allocation is good for now, at age 75 about 60% fixed income, but I'm looking for comments about this company and stable value funds in general.

Thanks.

 

[pb4uski]

I'm a big fan of stable value funds in general and wish I had access to one. While they have a tad more credit risk than CDs, the additional credit risk is negligible and if you're getting 100 bps more then I would go with the stable value fund. I would be very comfortable viewing the stable value fund that you described as a CD substitute, especially since you are getting paid for the negligible additional risk.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Anyone else have thoughts about this, particularly the "Standard Insurance Company"?
With a name like that, they remind me of the Acme Company that makes all of the stuff for Wile E Coyote...

 

[pb4uski]

Standard Insurance Company is legit and has been around for a long time... since 1906... they are now a subsidiary of a Japanese insurance company.

https://www.standard.com/about-standard/company
https://www.meijiyasuda.co.jp/english/annual-reports/pdf/annual_2019_07.pdf