Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
Help - Ticker Symbol for Variable Insurance Fund symbols
Wondering if anyone has a way of finding ticker symbols for mutual funds that are held in a variable annuity. In our case, these funds are held through Nationwide Annuity.
The mutual fund equivalent ticker would be VEIPX / VEIRX, but the variable annuity has its own ticker which I would like to track daily on Yahoo Finance.
There are no tickers for insurance products because they are not products that are traded or even regulated by SEC. However, there are still symbols for them which M* recognizes. Yahoo doesn't recognize them.
The symbols won't get you to M* fund pages but they are processed by M*'s portfolio tracker. You can coax fund information out of that by building a portfolio with just a single fund. If you have premium access you can then x-Ray the fund (i.e. the portfolio).
Note also that the performance of a fund offered in a VA is not the same as the performance of the fund in the VA, because the annuity adds a wrapper fee that reduces the return of the fund. If you want the performance of the VA's offering you have to go to the VA site and look up the performance figures there.
YTD, Vanguard VIF Equity Index Portfolio is up 11.09% (M*), but only 10.87% in the Transamerica Annuity. That's due to the 0.30% wrapper fee of the annuity.
"MULTISEARCH can used for fund listed funds (OEFs, ETFs, CEFs) and proprietary Insurance Funds (IF-xxxx). For insurance funds, use Asset Universe – Insurance Funds and firm’s Name(s) – e.g. TIAA (or CREF or both separated by comma), Fidelity, Vanguard, Pimco (or Allianz or both separated by comma), etc. MultiSearch will only find tickers for the oldest classes (default, typically the investor or institutional classes; use More Basic Information to override); a click on a fund ticker will show its other classes along with lots of other information. There is also a QuickSearch with fewer options.
TIAA/CREF VAs at MFO are longer than elsewhere, including at the TIAA website
TIAA website shows CREF Stock Account (all classes) back to fund inception, 7/31/1952. Like M*, for newer share classes, "the performance shown prior to the [share class'] inception date ... is based on the performance of the investment's older share class. "
You can find an individual page for any CREF fund at TIAA by inserting its ticker in the URL below. That page in turn contains a link to a factsheet for the particular fund.
Unlike most VAs, M* does serve up a separate page for each CREF VA (and for TIAA Real Estate). You need to enter the name in the search box and press enter. For example, searching for CREF Stock returns links to pages for each share class, R1 - R4. https://www.morningstar.com/search?query=CREF Stock
These also go back to 7/31/1952. Unfortunately, the data M* provides once you go back a few decades is only monthly. So you won't be able to tell what the performance was between, say, 7/31/1952 and 8/15/1952. Still, given that qualification, the M* chart will give you a CREF fund's performance between any two months of your choosing.
I'd forgotten that the M* search also recognizes some Fidelity VIP for the Fidelity annuity funds. For example, M* uses FVIDX for Fidelity VIP Total Market Index, Initial Class. No one else, not even Fidelity, recognizes that pseudo-ticker. For that exact share class, Fidelity uses FTMKC internally.
In looking at the prospectus, I see that Nationwide adds a 0.35% "low cost platform fee" to the fund's 0.14% ER for a total 0.49% annual fee including the annuity wrapper. Still low, but something to keep in mind if you look at the fund performance in isolation rather than at the fund performance inside the annuity.
(For other readers - Monument Annuity charges a flat $240/year for the annuity but for lower cost funds adds what amounts to a service fee. Other annuities usually charge a percentage fee for the annuity rather than a flat fee. And, like Monument, they may get also get kickbacks from various funds, e.g. from 12b-1 fees.)
Comments
The symbols won't get you to M* fund pages but they are processed by M*'s portfolio tracker. You can coax fund information out of that by building a portfolio with just a single fund. If you have premium access you can then x-Ray the fund (i.e. the portfolio).
You can look up the symbols on ft.com. Here are the 19 Vanguard VIF products:
https://markets.ft.com/data/search?assetClass=0P0000TNLX&query=Vanguard+Variable
Note also that the performance of a fund offered in a VA is not the same as the performance of the fund in the VA, because the annuity adds a wrapper fee that reduces the return of the fund. If you want the performance of the VA's offering you have to go to the VA site and look up the performance figures there.
Vanguard Variable Annuity was sold to Transamerica and is now marketed as Transamerica Value Variable Annuity. Using that name, the VA performance figures can be researched here:
https://www.transamerica.com/individual/annuities/performance
YTD, Vanguard VIF Equity Index Portfolio is up 11.09% (M*), but only 10.87% in the Transamerica Annuity. That's due to the 0.30% wrapper fee of the annuity.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/539/mfo-premium
"MULTISEARCH can used for fund listed funds (OEFs, ETFs, CEFs) and proprietary Insurance Funds (IF-xxxx). For insurance funds, use Asset Universe – Insurance Funds and firm’s Name(s) – e.g. TIAA (or CREF or both separated by comma), Fidelity, Vanguard, Pimco (or Allianz or both separated by comma), etc. MultiSearch will only find tickers for the oldest classes (default, typically the investor or institutional classes; use More Basic Information to override); a click on a fund ticker will show its other classes along with lots of other information. There is also a QuickSearch with fewer options.
TIAA/CREF VAs are available for quotes, charting, portfolios/watchlists. Information on their Q-tickers (Yahoo Finance, StockCharts, TIAA website, etc) and MFO/Lipper IF-tickers is in the links below. Names for the CREF R1 and R3 classes are incorrectly switched. Histories available for TIAA/CREF VAs at MFO are longer than elsewhere, including at the TIAA website (now).
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/536/tiaa-cref-vas-mfo
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/61774/tiaa-cref-vas-at-mfo"
In a later update, 6-characters Q-tickers for TIAA & CREF VAs are now recognized by MFOP,
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1405/thread
TIAA website shows CREF Stock Account (all classes) back to fund inception, 7/31/1952. Like M*, for newer share classes, "the performance shown prior to the [share class'] inception date ... is based on the performance of the investment's older share class. "
All the CREF VAs (tickers, performance since inception, etc.) are shown here:
https://www.tiaa.org/public/investment-performance?defaultview=vaonly
You can find an individual page for any CREF fund at TIAA by inserting its ticker in the URL below. That page in turn contains a link to a factsheet for the particular fund.
https://www.tiaa.org/public/investment-performance/investment/profile?ticker=QCSTFX
Unlike most VAs, M* does serve up a separate page for each CREF VA (and for TIAA Real Estate). You need to enter the name in the search box and press enter. For example, searching for CREF Stock returns links to pages for each share class, R1 - R4.
https://www.morningstar.com/search?query=CREF Stock
These also go back to 7/31/1952. Unfortunately, the data M* provides once you go back a few decades is only monthly. So you won't be able to tell what the performance was between, say, 7/31/1952 and 8/15/1952. Still, given that qualification, the M* chart will give you a CREF fund's performance between any two months of your choosing.
I'd forgotten that the M* search also recognizes some Fidelity VIP for the Fidelity annuity funds. For example, M* uses FVIDX for Fidelity VIP Total Market Index, Initial Class. No one else, not even Fidelity, recognizes that pseudo-ticker. For that exact share class, Fidelity uses FTMKC internally.
https://nationwide.onlineprospectus.net/NW/921925301NW/index.php
The Nationwide link provided is to Vanguard VIF Equity Income not Equity Index
I'm also guessing that your Nationwide annuity is the (formerly Jefferson National) Monument Advisor annuity.
https://www.nationwide.com/nationwide-advisory/products/annuities/pages/monument-advisor
In looking at the prospectus, I see that Nationwide adds a 0.35% "low cost platform fee" to the fund's 0.14% ER for a total 0.49% annual fee including the annuity wrapper. Still low, but something to keep in mind if you look at the fund performance in isolation rather than at the fund performance inside the annuity.
(For other readers - Monument Annuity charges a flat $240/year for the annuity but for lower cost funds adds what amounts to a service fee. Other annuities usually charge a percentage fee for the annuity rather than a flat fee. And, like Monument, they may get also get kickbacks from various funds, e.g. from 12b-1 fees.)
Lots of info to digest.