Aria Retirement Solutions Adds New Funds

Aria Retirement Solutions (Aria) has made several funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) eligible for use with the RetireOne Transamerica fixed contingent annuity guaranteed income product. 

The DFA funds added to the eligible assets of RetireOne Transamerica include DFA Large-Cap Value (DFUVX), DFA U.S. Small-Cap Value (DFSVX), DFA International Value (DFVIX), DFA Emerging Markets Value (DFEVX) and DFA Emerging Markets Core (DFCEX). There are currently 27 DFA funds available for use with RetireOne Transamerica, which is an investment vehicle that allows advisers to purchase DFA mutual funds for clients and add an income guarantee.

The income guarantee is based on the claims-paying ability of Transamerica Advisors Life Insurance Co.

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Aria’s RetireOne Transamerica’s retirement income product allows RIAs to:

  •  Wrap a low-cost income guarantee around an open architecture portfolio of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by advisers;
  •  Eliminate the commissions and surrender charges associated with other lifetime income products; and
  •  Provide open access to more than 125 mutual funds and ETFs from several fund families, including American Funds, iShares, PIMCO, Vanguard and DFA.

 

“We are pleased to expand the universe of eligible mutual funds and ETFs that advisers can use with RetireOne to wrap an income guarantee around a portfolio of assets that they actively manage,” said David Stone, chief executive officer of Aria Retirement Solutions. “We will continue to build out our lineup of RIA-preferred funds to help advisers provide their clients with low-cost access to guaranteed income products.”

Gender Income Gap Creates Women’s Retirement Savings Shortfall

Income disparities have translated into a 25% to 30% retirement savings shortfall for women compared with their male cohorts, according to a research report.

In addition, the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) said women are more likely than men to be caregivers—resulting in lost or decreased wages. This time out of the work force combined with income disparities, decreases Social Security and employer-provided retirement benefits. The result is that women have less retirement savings and retirement income from traditional resources, which are required to cover longer average retirement spans and higher lifetime health care costs.    

While half of Boomer men have retirement savings of at least $200,000, only 35% of female Boomers have reached this level of savings, the research found. Only one-third of Boomer women are highly confident that they will have enough money to cover their health care expenses during retirement—compared with 41% of Boomer men.    

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More than 43% of Boomer women expect to retire at age 65 or later and more than 34% do not know when they will retire. Only four in 10 women ages 55 and older believe they have done a good job planning financially for retirement. One-quarter of women have little to no confidence that they are planning appropriately for retirement.    

Nearly 53% of Boomer women have not consulted with a financial adviser. When selecting a retirement investment product, the most important traits to Boomer women are guaranteed monthly income, financial adviser recommendation and rate of return. 

The research report is here. 

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