Happy Friday, readers! It’s a common saying in the retirement plan industry that the back-end of the savings effort (i.e., spending down accumulated assets in a sustainable and efficient way) is far more complicated than the accumulation effort. This is because plan participants all have different longevity expectations, different beliefs about how they would like to live in retirement, and different conclusions about how to weigh longevity risk versus the risk of under-consumption. Making matters even more difficult, survey data shows that plan sponsors are not necessarily thinking strictly about annuities when contemplating the addition of an in-plan retirement income option. Despite this, recordkeepers and asset managers most commonly point to an annuity-based product as being top-of-mind for plan sponsor clients. Will 2019 deliver greater clarity on this vexing topic?
According to Cerulli research, the various parties involved in the implementation of an in-plan retirement income solution are often not on the same page about basic terminology and definitions.
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The department believes an oversight bureau, created to assess the financial strength of annuity providers, would help employers and advisers become more comfortable including annuities in retirement plans.
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Nearly all of those who work with an adviser feel they have prepared themselves well for estimating their monthly income needs in retirement, Voya Financial learned in a survey.
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The proposal is intended to help investors better understand these contracts’ features, fees and risks, and to more easily find the information needed to make an informed investment decision.
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Variable annuities continue to face challenges in the wake of transaction processing disruptions caused by the now-vacated DOL fiduciary rule; however, experts anticipate sales to recover as business processes normalize and newer product types come to market.
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Principal is incorporating capabilities from the Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust platform into its own proprietary recordkeeping system, which will serve Principal and transitioning Wells Fargo customers moving forward.
Washington insiders say Senator Ted Cruz is probably the biggest roadblock to the SECURE Act being passed in the near-term under unanimous consent; among other issues, he wants the bill to allow people to use tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts to pay for home school expenses.
Plaintiffs says defendants failed to properly monitor and control the plan’s expenses, and allowed the plan to become one of the most expensive “jumbo” 401(k) plans in the country.
Two advisory firms argue they are harmed by the “best interest” rule because it causes them a competitive disadvantage with respect to broker/dealers, and because the rule will increase rather than abate investor confusion.
