Transamerica Life GROWSafe® Funds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 John Beaton 
The following links refer to Transamerica Life funds which are no longer sold. Information is provided for those who still have them. 
Tel: (604) 535-2404 Toll Free: 1-800-667-8818 |
If you purchased Transamerica Life's original GROWSafe® funds you own a very valuable investment. The market turmoil since the year 2000 saw many investors loosing large chunks of their investment capital. While your Transamerica Life GROWSafe® funds dropped in value like most other funds, you had exclusive maturity guarantees that helped mitigate any losses you might have suffered. Sales of original GROWSafe® funds ceased March 1, 2001. Transamerica Life Insurance Company made the decision to "cap" this group of funds, effective March 1, 2001 and they will not accept new applications, additional deposits or new pre-authorized chequing plans. Existing pre-authorized chequing plans are allowed to continue but monthly amounts cannot be increased. In the event that a pre-authorized chequing plan is stopped, it cannot be re-started at a later date. It is easy to become confused as to what are the correct funds that apply to your particular investment contract. Transamerica Life has launched three new series of funds since the original GROWSafe® funds. Should you wish to make any changes to your GROWSafe® policy or policies by transferring to other funds, without affecting any of the guarantees, you should make these changes only within the funds that comprise the original GROWSafe® family of funds. If you transfer to a fund outside the original family of funds, you risk loosing the rich maturity and death guarantees and reset rights that belong to your policy. Please refer to your Transamerica Life semi-annual statement to make certain that any changes you consider are made within the proper fund choices relating to your particular contract. Your statement will show you whether your contract is a GSF 94, GSF 97 or GSF 99. Refer to the chart below to find the proper fund code for the funds that are within your family of funds. As of December 8, 2003, the Canadian 60 Index Fund, U.S. 500 Index Fund, U.S. 21st Century Index Fund, European 100 Index Fund and the Japanese 225 Index Fund were discontinued and existing investments in those funds were reallocated into the Global Growth Fund. The discontinued U.S. 500 Index Fund, U.S. 21st Century Index Fund, European 100 Index Fund and the Japanese 225 Index Fund were currency-exposed funds. Since 2003 currency fluxuations have worked against returns from these international investments. Their reallocation into the Global Growth Fund currency neutral fund removed the element of short-term currency fluctuations. This discontinuance and reallocation did not affect the guarantees, maturity, or deferred sales charge schedule of the existing policies. Original GROWSafe® policies were and still are unique investment vehicles in the marketplace. Besides having a wide choice of investments to choose from, they had the best guarantees of any segregated funds. No other life insurance company ever offered a group of segregated funds with 100% guarantees on maturity and death. GROWSafe® 94 policies allowed unlimited resets of policy values. GROWSafe® 97 policies allowed up to 6 resets of policy values each year. GROWSafe® 99 policies allowed up to 2 resets of policy values each year. The resets allow you to increase the amount of your investment under the 100% guarantee, although each reset does push forward your maturity date so that maturity is always 10 years from the date of the last reset. Do you have a clear understanding of your GROWSafe® maturity guarantees? There are two maturity dates. One is the deposit maturity date on which the 10 year guarantee applies. On the deposit maturity date, Transamerica Life will top-up any difference between the market value and the guarantee value of the policy. If you have a non-registered policy, the top-up for the maturity guarantee would be taxable as a capital gain. If you have a registered policy, taxation is not a consideration. At deposit maturity, you have the option of continuing your policy thus beginning a new 10-year guarantee period or you could choose to redeem the funds and take or transfer the proceeds. The other maturity date that applies to your policy is the contract maturity date which is when your policy actually expires. Both the death guarantee and maturity top-up for any Transamerica Life investment in a non-registered policy is taxable as a capital gain. IMPORTANT NOTE: You should know that if you have chosen a successor annuitant for any of your GROWSafe® policies, you have effectively short circuited the 100% death benefit guarantee. By choosing a successor annuitant, there is no guaranteed death benefit and your investment simply transfers to the person you have named at the same market value as was calculated on the day of your death. By choosing beneficiary only, the guaranteed death benefit, which invariably is much more money, would be transferred to your beneficiary. If your beneficiary is your spouse, you would guarantee that he or she would receive the most amount of money without penalty. You should examine your original applications relating to your Transamerica Life investment policies to make certain that you have not chosen this option. If you have, you should discuss changing it with your advisor right now.
Subject to the applicable death and maturity guarantees, any part of the premium or other amount that is allocated to a segregated fund is invested at the risk of the contract holder and may increase or decrease in value according to fluctuations in the market value of the assets in the segregated fund. Segregated Funds are only available to Canadian residents. Persons resident or located in other countries are not eligible to purchase these products or associated services. Within Canada, the information on this web site is not intended to be construed as an offer to sell any insurance products in the province of Quebec. 15310 Pacific Avenue White Rock, British Columbia, Canada V4B 1P9 Tel: (604) 535-2404 Toll Free Canada: 1-800-667-8818 Web site: http://www.aftertaxes.bc.ca E-mail: john@aftertaxes.bc.ca All rights reserved. The names "Transamerica", "GrowSafe", GROWSafe®, GROWSafe3® and Imaxx are federally registered trademarks and service marks of the Transamerica Corporation. This web site designed & maintained by The Dogwood Mall  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||