Facilitating Lifetime Income Options

SIFMA provides comments to the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Treasury Department regarding the advantages and disadvantages of facilitating lifetime income options in plan design and encouraging participants to use lifetime income options as part of their retirement planning strategies, RIN 1210-AB33. SIFMA recommends enhancing relevant agency websites to include generic examples of converting account balances to annual income, as well making available a brochure with the questions employers and participants should ask when considering a lifetime income option to promote awareness of the role lifetime income may play in retirement. SIFMA does not support proposals to require plan sponsors to offer any particular investment option nor the option of defaulting participants into annuity or lifetime income guarantee options. SIFMA also believes requiring disclosure of an “annuitized amount” will result in new costs to retool systems with little, if any benefit to plan participants.