Patent ID: 8838493

Claim:
A method for administering a financial instrument, the method comprising: following an issuance of an employee retirement plan contract to an employee, wherein the employee retirement plan contract includes (i) a growth rate guarantee specifying a minimum positive growth rate and (ii) a portability guarantee including one or more provisions allowing the employee to transfer all or a portion of a balance of an employee retirement plan account associated with the employee retirement plan contract to an individual retirement account and further allowing the employee to transfer all or a portion of a protected value of the employee retirement plan contract to an individual retirement account contract: updating the balance of the employee retirement plan account based on market performance of one or more variable investments selected by the employee; and calculating, by one or more processor devices executing one or more processing modules, the protected value of the employee retirement plan contract, wherein the calculated protected value is at least equal to an initial deposit into the employee retirement plan account growing at the specified minimum positive growth rate regardless of the market performance of the one or more variable investments selected by the employee; and further following an issuance, after an election by the employee to perform a transfer via the portability guarantee, of the individual retirement account contract to the employee, wherein the individual retirement account contract includes a continuation guarantee including one or more provisions allowing the employee to transfer all or a portion of the balance of the employee retirement plan account to the individual retirement account and further allowing the employee to transfer all or a portion of the protected value of the employee retirement plan contract to the individual retirement account contract: transferring a percentage of the updated balance of the employee retirement plan account to the individual retirement account; and transferring a percentage of the calculated protected value of the employee retirement plan contract to the individual retirement account contract, the percentage of the calculated protected value transferred being equal to all or a portion of the percentage of the updated balance of the employee retirement plan account transferred to the individual retirement account so that a beneficiary is guaranteed to periodically receive, for the life of the employee, an amount of money from the individual retirement account based on the percentage of the calculated protected value transferred to the individual retirement account contract regardless of market performance of the individual retirement account.