Web-based retirement scenario platform RetireUp has expanded itsmodeling capabilities to include illustrations of fixed indexannuities (FIAs) from Allianz LifeInsurance Company of North America, including Allianz 222 andAllianz Core Income 7 annuities, directly within its clientretirement income models.

RetireUp’s computer-based modeling system allows financialprofessionals to present a more complete visual presentation oftheir clients’ retirement income strategies using defined income(Social Security, variable annuities, fixed index annuities,pensions) and other assets.

With increasing interest in FIAs--not just among individualslooking for sources of lifetime income, advisors advocatingannuities as a means of obtaining that income, companies thatprovide annuities, and even regulators—a tool that can model howspecific products will work in a specific situation could add toFIAs’ allure—particularly in the wake of a working paper last year finding thatimmediate annuities may not be getting enough attention from plansponsors and participants.

In addition, no less an authority than the Department of Labor’sEmployee Benefits Security Administration published a fieldassistance bulletin last summer that attempted to clarify 401(k) plan sponsors' fiduciaryobligations in selecting and monitoring lifetimeincome products offered to 401(k) participants.

And that followed a 2014 move by the Department of the Treasuryand the IRS, which issued guidance “designed to expand the use ofincome annuities in 401(k) plans,” according to a release Treasuryissued at the time.

That guidance clarified that plan sponsors can include deferredincome annuities in certain target-date funds used as qualifieddefault investment alternatives.

Although not everyone is a fan of fixed annuities as a means ofensuring retirement income, many are—even fee-only advisors who can’t acceptcommissions for selling such products.

In fact, their appeal could lead to a conflict of interest forfee-only RIAs, according to Harold Evensky, chair of Evensky, Katzand Foldes Financial, a fee-only wealth management firm,particularly with regard to the DOL’s fiduciary rule.

Evensky said last year that under the rule, recommendation ofannuities when appropriate could actually be a fiduciary duty offee-only advisors, who would be unable to accept commissions forsuch recommendations but nonetheless would be obligated to presentthem—especially immediate annuities—as in the clients’ bestinterests.