Financial services companies are working with a veteran industry outreach campaign specialist in Washington to promote public awareness of, and support for, retirement income arrangements.
The companies have joined together to start a new Alliance for Lifetime Income.
The alliance is a nonprofit, 501(c)(6) organization that has three main goals:
- Educating Americans about the value of protecting income as part of a retirement plan.
- Making retirement income planning easier.
- Helping consumers better understand annuities.
The alliance has hired Colin Devine, a longtime securities and rating analyst, to serve as its education advisor.
(Related: Prudential Aims to Improve Retirement Saving Hygiene)
Jean Statler, a managing partner at Statler Nagle LLC, registered the organization in Washington and is in charge of recruiting new members.
Statler was a senior vice president at Harris Interactive. She has also been vice president of communications at the American Plastics Council. While at the council, she helped develop the council’s “Plastics Make It Possible” campaign.
Guiding Ideas
Devine said in an interview that, although the alliance is interested in annuities, the alliance will take a broad approach to income planning issues.
“It’s about awareness,” Devine said. “It’s not product-specific.”
Devine said the group wants to reach financial professionals as well as consumers.
The group hopes to encourage financial professionals to move away from an exclusive focus on asset accumulation and to think more about what happens when clients retire, Devine said.
“It’s time for them to have a dialogue with their clients about planning for retirement income,” Devine said.
Nuts and Bolts
The alliance has a website aimed at financial services organizations here.
A website aimed at consumers and other members of the general public is located here.
The site aimed at financial services professionals and organizations offers results from a new survey the alliance commissioned. The alliance found, for example, that 48% of members of households with heads ages 45 to 72, and assets of $74,000 to $1.99 million, expect to retire with no guaranteed source of monthly income other than Social Security benefits.