Lifetime income options, such as annuities, can undoubtedly play a valuable role in most (if not all) clients’ retirement income planning strategies — a fact that has been widely recognized by government agencies in recent years.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the latest entity to respond, and it has released a recommendation designed to allay plan sponsors’ fear of fiduciary liability under the current rules, which, coupled with the fact that the bulk of an average client’s retirement savings may be held in a 401(k), may be hindering the middle market client’s ability to purchase a lifetime income product.
As a result, the GAO has recommended that the Department of Labor (DOL) modify its rules governing plan sponsors’ fiduciary liability in order to facilitate the availability of in-plan annuity products within 401(k)s.
The current 401(k) rules
The current rules for offering lifetime income options (in the form of annuities) within a 401(k) are known as safe harbor requirements that can allow a plan sponsor to make an in-plan annuity option available without fear of fiduciary liability. The safe harbor rule requires the plan sponsor to assess the costs and benefits of the annuity (using the standard of prudence that generally applies in the fiduciary context) when selecting which annuities will be available for purchase within the plan.
Additionally, the safe harbor requires a plan sponsor to assess an annuity provider’s ability to make all future payments under the annuity contract at the time the contract is selected as an in-plan option. Although the DOL recently released a field assistance bulletin clarifying that the plan sponsor’s fiduciary duty to monitor the annuity provider’s financial capabilities ends when that insurer’s annuities are no longer offered as distribution options by the plan, many plan sponsors have still been reluctant to take on the responsibility created by offering the annuity option in the first place.
In fact, GAO research has found that only about 25 percent of all plans have chosen to offer an in-plan annuity option, and only about one-third of plans have adopted some form of withdrawal option to help participants manage their funds after retirement.
Proposed modifications