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American Century Investments has launched Income Blueprint to help retirement plan fiduciaries implement a process to evaluate and choose in-plan guaranteed income products.
The online tool provides a simplified view of available products and generates a customizable report that compares and scores each one according to plan preferences.
The Income Blueprint organizes the SECURE Act’s guidance on the selection of a lifetime income provider into three steps. The first step identifies the type of insurance product based on features such as guarantees, liquidity, growth potential and fee structure. Starting the process through the lens of these features gives the Income Blueprint an objective, thorough and analytical foundation.
The second step considers costs in relation to features and benefits. In this step, users rank the importance of plan features to customize their weighting against costs. The third and final step considers the financial capability of the insurer. After the product is selected, fiduciaries must obtain written representation from the insurer and periodically review this document.
Income Blueprint users create their own personalized library of guaranteed income products and their features. The tool stores uploaded data for each individual product, including insurer documentation, for client-specific product comparisons. All information entered in Income Blueprint is saved by a specific user.
These steps are documented and result in a report, generated by Income Blueprint, that reviews the evaluation process and criteria and provides documentation for product selection. The goal, says American Century, is to provide safe harbor for fiduciaries who use Income Blueprint to advise their clients.