The resolution does not use the word "annuity," but, in other contexts, TIAA and other asset managers often refer to the "lifetime investment solutions" as "annuities" or as "annuitization options."

Related: TIAA's 'Bill of Rights': A call to action during National Retirement Security Month

NCOIL members — a group for state lawmakers with an interest in insurance — voted on the lifetime income resolution at NCOIL's spring meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

The history: TIAA, a major retirement services provider, brought the resolution text to NCOIL last year and encouraged NCOIL to adopt it.

Two TIAA state government relations executives, Josh Freely and Gerard Neely, spoke in favor of the resolution in November at an NCOIL meeting in San Antonio.

Freely predicted that, if state and federal governments fail to act, workers' income planning gap will add $1.3 trillion to U.S. state and federal government benefits spending in 2040, according to the meeting minutes.

TIAA is not the only asset manager supporting increased use of in-plan annuities.

BlackRock, Nationwide, T. Rowe Price and Prudential's PGIM are some of the other companies backing increased access to in-plan annuities, arguing that the approach makes high-quality, carefully vetted options available to workers at a low cost.

The dissenters: Some employers have offered in-plan annuities or similar features inside 401(k) plans for decades, but other employers have worried about the cost and complexity of adding in-plan annuities to retirement plans.

Two critics of the in-plan annuity strategy, Toni Brown of Capital Group and Brett Hammond of Clear Analytics, have written in a commentary that poorly designed in-plan annuity programs could lead workers who have limited access to personalized advice to lock assets into one-size-fits-all arrangements that may not meet their needs.