Compliance March 10, 2025

Chavez-DeRemer Confirmed as Secretary of Labor

The full Senate vote came after President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor was cleared by the HELP Committee last month.

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The U.S. Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon as secretary of labor under President Donald Trump. Senate members voted 67 to 32, with the nomination garnering broad support from Senate Democrats. 

Senators Rand Paul, R-Kentucky; Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky; and Tedd Budd, R-North Carolina, voted against Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation to lead the Department of Labor. Senator John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, did not vote.

“IRI congratulates Secretary Chavez-DeRemer on her confirmation as President Trump’s Labor Secretary,” said Wayne Chopus, IRI’s president and CEO, in a statement. “We look forward to working with her and other Trump Administration officials, Congress, and stakeholders to expand access to workplace retirement plans and facilitate access to protected, guaranteed lifetime income solutions for Americas’ workers and retirees.”

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TIAA issued the following statement: “TIAA congratulates former Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer on her confirmation as U.S. Secretary of Labor. Her leadership comes at a critical moment brimming with the opportunity to improve retirement outcomes for American workers. We look forward to working together with Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, along with leadership at the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), to advance policies and unleash solutions that can enable more American workers to save for and achieve a financially secure retirement, from expanding access to workplace retirement plans to improving every worker’s access to lifetime retirement income.”

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted last month 14 to 9 to advance Chavez-DeRemer to the full Senate. Senators Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire; Tim Kaine, D-Virginia; and John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, joined Republican committee members to support Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor.

At the time, the three Democratic members’ support offset a “no” vote from Paul, who previously criticized Chavez-DeRemer for her support, as a member of the House of Representatives representing Oregon’s 5th congressional district, of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023, which sought to make it easier for workers to unionize.

However, Chavez-DeRemer said during her nomination hearing that she no longer supports the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right-to-work laws.

A nomination hearing for Daniel Aronowitz, Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary of labor to lead the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has yet to be scheduled.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations Vince Micone had served as acting secretary of labor since Trump’s January 21 inauguration.

Products March 10, 2025

TIAA Expands Annuity Availability to Its IRAs

New enrollees in a TIAA IRA can now select among TIAA's annuities, including the TIAA Traditional and CREF variable annuities.

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TIAA is expanding the availability of its proprietary lifetime income annuities outside of employer-sponsored retirement plans, making them an option in the TIAA IRA.

After years of serving the 403(b) marketplace and, more recently, introducing lifetime income solutions to 401(k)s, new enrollees in a TIAA IRA can now select among TIAA’s annuities, including the TIAA Traditional and CREF variable annuities. 

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“The American retirement system is simply not working for far too many people. We are providing a simple solution to the more than 55 million Americans who do not have access to a retirement plan at work,” said Colbert Narcisse, chief product and business development officer at TIAA. “Through the TIAA IRA, Americans have the option for pension-like retirement checks that can help provide certainty they will have money to spend for the rest of their life.”

Increasing Retirement Income with Annuities

TIAA says workers putting some of their savings in fixed annuities can often provide more income to retirees than a 4% withdrawal strategy.

According to the company, in 2025, retirees could earn 33% more money in their first year of retirement than they would if they used the 4% rule alone. For example, the company shows an example of a 67-year-old retiree with $1 million in savings who, using the 4% rule, could spend $40,000 in the first year of retirement.

However, by purchasing a TIAA Traditional fixed annuity with one-third of savings and withdrawing 4% of the remaining two thirds, that person would get $53,154 to spend in the first year of retirement, assuming he began receiving payouts on March 1, 2025.

For employees who have been “long-term contributors” to TIAA Traditional inside their retirement plan during their working years, TIAA offers what it calls a loyalty bonus percentage. It says this can lead to higher payouts at upon annuitizing compared to a new contributor who annuitizes an equal amount at the same time.

TIAA paid more than $5.9 billion in lifetime income to retired clients in 2024 and has $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2024.

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