I had to chuckle a bit when I first read Nevin Adam’s excellent (of course) recap of the latest DC class action lawsuit, this one involving JP Morgan Chase Bank’s DC plan’s selection of stable value funds. He noted the complaint alleges that “throughout the Class Period, identical or substantially identical stable value funds

The ongoing Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) litigation poignantly demonstrates the growing importance of the SECURE Act’s “Annuity Safe Harbor” provision to the continuing efforts to design and develop responsive DC Lifetime Income programs.

The PRT plaintiffs claim fiduciary violations of the DOL’s “safest available annuity” (or “SAU”) requirements under DOL Reg 29 CFR 2550.404a–4 by

There are substantial efforts underway in many parts of the industry to develop similar sorts of benchmarking tools for assessing, comparing and monitoring the growing variety of lifetime income programs for defined contribution plans. A very real challenge these developers face arises from the fundamental difference in the nature of the investments involved: existing equity based assessment tools translate poorly into critiquing programs where decumulation risks are the critical factor. Even the language used to produce these new tools is demanding a new mind set.
Continue Reading Benchmarking Outcomes, Not Fees

The provision of the “Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit” (or GLWB) is a key element of most of the current market efforts to provide guaranteed lifetime income programs from defined contribution plans-and with good reason. The GLWB is one of a class of annuity payment programs referred to as “living benefits”  which seek to remove the