The Treasury Department plans to release soon guidance for employers on how best to integrate lifetime income products into 401(k)s and other employer-sponsored retirement plans, while the Department of Labor plans to follow with similar guidance early next year.
Treasury and DOL issued a request for information (RFI) last year that included 39 questions for those in the retirement planning space about the products they offer, impediments to offering them, and whether or not participants use such products when they are offered.
J. Mark Iwry, senior advisor to the secretary and deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health policy at Treasury, said at an event in Washington on Monday titled "Picturing Your Retirement Income," that the Treasury will soon be ready to start this series of "guidance items that DOL and Treasury are working up in response to the RFI on lifetime income."
Treasury, he said, "will start with the sweep of items that will be intended to get the ball rolling, not to be a solution, but a first step–or series of first steps–to be followed by further guidance by DOL and Treasury."
The event was sponsored by the American Council of Life Insurers, AARP, American Benefits Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement.
Iwry said Treasury will be putting out a package of guidance first, with DOL then following early next year.
