(Photo: Mike Scarcella/ALM)
The part of the new "Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020″ bill getting the most attention may be the section that would increase the required minimum distribution (RMD) age for individual retirement account (IRA) assets to 75, from 72.
Another part of H.R. 8696, Section 202 could increase use of a product that's popular with retirement policymakers: the deferred income annuity.
A deferred income annuity, which is also known as a longevity annuity, is a product that's designed to start paying a stream of benefits at a designated time in the future, such as when a retirement saver turns 85, and then to continue to pay benefits for the rest of the annuitant's life. A defined income annuity can protect a client against "Methuselah risk," or the risk that the client will run out of retirement resources due to living much longer than expected.
Resources
- Links to Secure Act 2.0 bill resources are available here.
- A Brookings paper on why economists seem to like deferred income annuities more than retirement savers do is available here.
- A general article about the Secure Act 2.0 bill is available here.
Economists and other theorists say deferred income annuities can help protect consumers against Methuselah risk for a very low price, because the issuer has to pay a large amount of benefits only if the annuitant lives for an unusually long time.
A "qualifying longevity annuity contract," or QLAC, is a deferred income annuity designed for use inside an individual retirement arrangement.
A client can use a QLAC to put off collecting RMDs past age 72. Because that kind of move can reduce federal government tax revenue, by delaying the year when a taxpayer using a traditional IRA starts including IRA distributions in taxable income, federal tax rules impose a limit on the amount of IRA assets that a client can put in a QLAC. The QLAC conversion maximum is 25% of IRA assets, up to an inflation-adjusted limit. The limit for 2020 is $135,000.
