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January 14, 2020 at 04:46 PM
The Alliance for Lifetime Income is telling the federal regulators, state regulators, and regulator groups trying to set financial services sales standards, “Hold my beer.”
The Washington-based group — which represents big annuity issuers, big annuity distributors, and other big annuity industry players — has adopted its own set of five retirement education guiding principles.
Resources
- A copy of the principles document is available here.
Jean Statler, the executive director of the alliance, said the guiding principles document will help members shape how they move toward their vision of eliminating the risk that Americans will run out of money in retirement.
“For too long, both consumers planning for retirement and the financial planning industry have focused too heavily on accumulating savings without balancing that with income planning for retirement,” Statler said in a comment about the new principles that came out with the principles announcement. “We believe that, among other things, this has added to the more than 80 million American households today who are unprotected in retirement, meaning they face the prospect of running out of money in their lifetime. Annuities have a unique role to play in helping cover basic expenses and ensuring that Americans face their financial future with optimism and a sense of security.”
The alliance says in the guiding principles document that it believes in:
- Promoting retirement income planning.
- Educating consumers about sources of protected lifetime income, such as Social Security, pensions and annuities.
- Focusing on consumers’ interests, and putting clients goals and interests at the center of any recommendations.
- Striving for transparency and clarity, and putting terms and explanations about annuities in “plain English,” with full disclosure of annuity costs, fees, benefits, provisions and requirements.
- Making sure that every consumer who considers an annuity has access to simple, fact-based educational information and resources.
New Challenges to Capitalism
The alliance is releasing the guiding principles document as a democratic socialist is one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, and as many young people are filling social media serves with comments questioning the ability of for-profit businesses to meet people’s needs.
Statler said in an interview that the financial services company chief executive officers who belong to the Alliance for Lifetime Income believe that life insurance companies provide an important social good.
“We fundamentally believe there’s a need for protected income beyond Social Security,” Statler said.
Social Security is a critical social insurance program, but the level of benefits it provides is limited, and public awareness of those limits is lacking, Statler said.
Annuity Understanding Gap
Statler said the alliance has also found widespread lack of understanding of how private retirement savings products can already help people prepare for the future.
