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Products May 8, 2017
Wells Fargo Launches Annuity Option with MetLife
To combat the risk of living out retirement income, Wells Fargo and MetLife are rolling out an annuity option which will provide participants with payments on or before their 85th birthday.
Reported by Javier Simon
Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust is collaborating with MetLife to give retirement plan sponsors a new annuity option. MetLife Retirement Income Insurance is a qualifying longevity annuity contract (QLAC) available for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust clients.
As participants approach retirement, they can designate a portion of their plan balance toward the MetLife QLAC, which excludes that amount from funds used to determine the required minimum distribution people must take after age 70 ½. The participant must begin to receive income payments from the QLAC on or before their 85th birthday.
“Participants face an unanswerable question of how many years they will spend in retirement. Offering this product to our clients supports our philosophy of helping retirement plan participants to and through their retirement,” says Joe Ready, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “We’re pleased to continue to add options that help people prepare for retirement and move the conversation from accumulation into a discussion about managing and drawing down their retirement savings after they retire. At Wells Fargo, we’re committed to supporting participants with tools, resources and products that help them at this stage of the retirement journey.”
Retirement plan participants working at Wells Fargo client companies adopting this new option will be able to learn about the MetLife product in existing education sessions. They will also be able to call into the Wells Fargo Retirement contact center and access an online Retirement Resource Center.
“As the company that introduced longevity insurance into the marketplace, we are pleased that Wells Fargo will be making MetLife’s institutional QLAC available to its 401(k) clients for their plan participants,” says Roberta Rafaloff, vice president, Institutional Income Annuities, MetLife. “Allowing plan participants to take a portion of their retirement savings to protect against the biggest risk in retirement — longevity risk — can help ensure better retirement outcomes.”