We have been extensively researching, writing on and developing the concept of providing lifetime income from defined contribution plans for some 15 years. The work has resulted in a patent; several major independantly published research papers; the  outlining of some of the important concepts which underline the proposed QLAC regs and its key revenue ruling; and the development of more than one retirement product. If you look closely, you’ll see that that many of the major whitepapers  published on lifetime income are well based on this extensive work we have published. Some of the work really is groundbreaking; for example, we propose  a useful fiduciary process which can be used by fiduciaries in the purchase of annuities, in our NYU paper.

This blog has carried much of that material for the past 5 years, since February, 2009. We’ve now compiled those pieces here for use by  employers, vendors, actuaries, advisers and attorneys who may be struggling to support lifetime income in defined contribution plans.

  • Lets start with some of the major research pieces we’ve written. I have posted 5 of them here. They are vastly different than the typical whitepaper, which is usually commissioned by a client to advocate a certain point. These papers are independently written, unbiased research and policy papers published for the likes of  CCH, BNA and the NYU Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation. You should find them useful to help understand the legal, tax and fiduciary issues, and craft solutions: the link is Published Papers.
  • Next, there is a great assortment of all sorts of annuity related issues, including how to use the QLAC; descriptions of the annuity general account; descriptions of annuity separate accounts; some product issues; and some fiduciary issues. The link is Lifetime Income Archives.
  • The DC annuity patent  for which I am co-inventor with Dan Herr, where we describe the manner in which you can actually provide guaranteed lifetime income off of a mutual fund platform.  The link is Toth Patent.

Hope this helps!