Labor Department headquarters in Washington. (Photo: Mike Scarcella/ALM)
The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration released Tuesday an interim final rule intended to help workers estimate how their current savings in a defined contribution plan translates into lifetime monthly payments.
The rule implements Section 203 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act of 2019.
The Secure Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump, amended the pension benefit statement requirements under Section 105 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to require participants' accrued benefits to be included on their pension benefit statement as a current account balance, and as an estimated lifetime stream of payments.
Using assumptions set forth in the rule, plan administrators would be required to show participants equivalents of their retirement savings as monthly income under two potential scenarios:
- as a single life income stream, and
- as an income stream that factors in a survivor benefit.
The department will open a 60-day comment period once the rule is published in the Federal Register.
