The Department of Treasury is supporting several Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) retirement security policy initiatives.
“At a time when Americans are shouldering primary responsibility for providing their own financial security in retirement, we need public policies designed to increase access to and encourage use of lifetime income products,” Cathy Weatherford, IRI president and CEO, said with regard to the Department of Treasury’s actions. “IRI commends the Department of the Treasury for including several common-sense retirement security policies from IRI’s 2017 Retirement Security Blueprint. This summer, IRI met with Treasury staff to explain how the policies included in our Blueprint would improve retirement readiness across the country and we are encouraged to see so many of those policies being recommended.”
The Department of Treasury is calling upon the Department of Labor (DOL) to make changes to the rules for employers who want to make lifetime income products available to employees through their retirement plans. Currently, employers are tasked with deciding if a specific insurer will be able to meet all of their future financial obligations before adding an annuity offered by that insurer to their plan.
IRI officials maintain the Treasury’s recommendations would help clear the obstacle by allowing employers to rely on independent fiduciaries to evaluate an insurer’s financial condition. The Treasury Department also recommends the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopt a variable annuity summary prospectus, which IRI has been seeking for nearly a decade.