With the passage of the SECURE Act, a growing number of plan sponsors and fiduciaries are beginning to explore annuities as a vehicle to provide guaranteed income for their 401(k) plan participants and address longevity risk.  Still, the question of how to appropriately include income-providing solutions within a plan's offering is proving to be challenging.  In fact, a recent Alight survey found 75% of plan sponsors indicated that fear of fiduciary liability around the selection of in-plan annuity solutions drove their decision to not yet offer them to their participants. 

This no longer need be the case thanks in large part to the impact the SECURE Act and subsequent retirement-themed legislation is expected to have on in-plan income provisions.   In fact, it is the Institutional Retirement Income Council's (IRIC) belief that this federal regulation is a game-changer, and that eventually plan sponsors will become comfortable implementing some of these new annuity-based income solutions.  To further help plan sponsors and fiduciaries, IRIC recently published several white papers aimed at educating the defined contribution community on retirement income solutions.