Products & Services July 11, 2024

Product & Service Launches – 7/11/24

T. Rowe Price launches tax-free fixed-income ETF; Broadridge adds values-based investing tool for advisers; and Principal brings second annuity with guaranteed lifetime income to market to meet ‘record wave’ of retirees.

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T. Rowe Price Adds 1st Tax-Free Fixed-Income ETF


T. Rowe Price has added its first federally tax-free fixed-income exchange-traded fund to its ETF roster.

The T. Rowe Price Intermediate Municipal Income ETF is trading on the NASDAQ, with a strategy focused on investment-grade, intermediate-term municipal bonds with maturity of four to 12 years.

The ETF is co-managed by James Lynch and Charlie Hill, who have run portfolios for other T. Rowe Price intermediate-term municipal bond strategies. The ETF seeks “the highest level of income exempt from federal income taxes consistent with moderate price fluctuation” and has a net expense ratio of 0.24%, according to the firm.

The ETF brings T. Rowe Price’s active lineup to 16, all launched since August 2020.

Broadridge Launches Values-Based Investing Tool for Advisers

Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. has partnered with an outside company to add a values questionnaire and values-based data analytics tool to its adviser platform.

The firm announced it is partnering with YourStake.org PBC’s Values Questionnaire and data system to offer advisers an investment recommendation that “avoids or increases exposure to specific companies, sectors, or business practices based on their clients’ intrinsic beliefs.”

The questionnaire will be available on Broadridge’s Wealth Aggregation and Insights platform, with the pitch of bringing “greater portfolio personalization” that can align with adviser clients’ values.

“Broadridge recognizes the importance of hyper-personalization that investors have come to expect when seeking financial advice and how AI and data-driven insights enable advisors to differentiate themselves and create new revenue opportunities,” said Paul Camuto, vice president and product head of data aggregation wealth at Broadridge, in a statement.

Principal Launches Annuity with Guaranteed Lifetime Income

Principal Financial Group Inc. is in market with its second registered index-linked annuity to create a guaranteed lifetime income stream for retirement.

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The RILA, called Principal Strategic Income, uses a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit to provide a secure source of income in retirement, regardless of investment market performance or lifespan of the purchaser.

Available for sale to clients from financial professionals, Principal Strategic Income has two options for distribution: 1) a level amount every year that never decreases or 2) a tiered amount that provides higher income initially and then decreases if the account value reaches zero.

“The record wave of people turning 65 years of age every day has created a market for annuity solutions that is significantly greater than we have seen in the past, magnifying how important they can be to investors during their peak planning stages,” said Sri Reddy, senior vice president for retirement and income solutions at Principal, in a statement.

Rather than locking in an income decision at contract issuance, the RILA allows purchasers to change their income option one time before income payments start.

Principal’s first RILA was launched in 2023.


Deals & People July 11, 2024

White House Announces Nominee for PBGC Director

Employee benefits attorney Deva Kyle was tapped by the Biden administration to head the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

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Deva Kyle, a counsel at law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, was nominated Thursday by President Joe Biden as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Kyle would serve a five-year term as director if the Senate approves the appointment. Ann Orr has been serving as acting director since the April 30 end to Gordon Hartogensis’ term. The PBGC is a federally chartered insurer that backstops private pension funds in the U.S.

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Kyle joined Cohen, Weiss and Simon in 2022 as a counsel and advises clients on a wide range of employee benefits, federal tax and legislative matters. Cohen, Weiss and Simon is the same firm for which Assistant Secretary of Labor Lisa Gomez worked before leaving to run the Employee Benefit Security Administration.

Kyle began her career in 2004 with the PBGC, where she eventually served as staff director in the Office of Policy and External Affairs, leading the agency’s multiemployer pension policy efforts. In 2015 and 2016, Kyle worked at the Department of the Treasury, where, with a team of Treasury leaders, she crafted the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act program regulations and processes.

Deva Kyle

She returned to the PBGC in 2017 to serve as acting deputy chief of negotiations and restructuring, leading PBGC’s single and multiemployer programs.

Kendra Isaacson, a principal at public policy consultancy Mindset and a former counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is a former colleague of Kyle’s and says she is extremely qualified for the director role and “understands the technical ins and outs of the single and multiemployer programs” at the PBGC.

Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, urged President Joe Biden in a July 9 letter to choose a nominee who “both acknowledges [the] PBGC’s historic shortcomings and has concrete plans to solve them in a manner unafflicted by partisan politics.”

Cassidy argued in his letter that the PBGC is plagued by operational problems that have “cost taxpayers money, put pension plans at near-catastrophic levels of underfunding and caused delays that prevented pension funds from being able to quickly right their financial status.”

John Lowell, a partner in October Three Consulting, said in an email response that unlike a number of previous appointees to this role, Kyle comes to the position with PBGC and Treasury experience.

“In particular, she has extensive experience working with multiemployer plans—obviously a high priority in recent years and currently for [the] PBGC,” Lowell said. “While a nominee’s background is rarely a complete tip-off as to how they will handle their role, this suggests that the administration and its advisers would like to see the continuation of and perhaps increase in private sector pensions for rank-and-file workers.”

As both the Senate Health and Finance Committees have jurisdiction over the PBGC, both committees will need to vote on Kyle’s nomination before it goes to a vote of the full Senate.

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