Products September 6, 2023

Car Maker Stellantis to Offer Hueler Lifetime Income Products to Employees, Retirees

The Think Income program will allow Stellantis participants to browse annuity products, compare insurance providers and use educational resources.

Reported by

Hueler Income Solutions LLC—an online platform that offers lifetime income annuity products—announced that automotive company Stellantis will offer its U.S. salaried employees and retirees access to Hueler’s Think Income program. 

The program allows Stellantis plan participants to model and choose “real-time” guaranteed lifetime income payments from either pre-tax or after-tax savings, according to a press release.  

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Stellantis NV is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 by a merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot SA; its brands include Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram in the U.S. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam. More than 10,000 employees and retirees will have access to the platform. 

Hueler Income Solutions, located in Minneapolis, has been delivering lifetime income annuity products to the institutional marketplace since 2004, and the platform was designed to facilitate the creation of personal pensions for “transitioning investors.”  

The tool is made available directly to plan sponsors and numerous other retirement plans through Hueler’s non-exclusive partnerships with various financial services firms, fiduciary adviser platforms and nonprofit member organizations.  

Kelli Hueler, the founder and CEO of Hueler Companies, says several large plans currently use the program, including IBM, Boeing, General Motors and more. She adds that the platform is “completely independent” and often collaborates with recordkeepers and other service providers to help serve the needs of various plan sponsors.  

“We developed all our own technology, and it’s very flexible,” Hueler says. “We can basically implement it to the specifications of the employer.” 

Think Income is an enhancement to Hueler’s Income Solutions platform and is designed to encourage employee engagement and “improve understanding about the value of converting a portion of savings into sustainable income for life,” using annuities. 

Hueler explains that the Think Income tool allows participants to use an estimator that will show how using a certain portion of a participant’s savings can guarantee that person a certain amount of income in retirement.  

“For us, everything we do is in real time,” Hueler says. “None of this has to do with projections or formulas; this is all market-based. So when people are using that tool, it’s literally bringing back to them what the market would offer them today … and they don’t have to put in any personal information.” 

The platform also allows participants to compare the various fee levels and features of reputable insurance providers in order to select a provider and an annuity that make sense for them. Hueler says the platform is user-friendly, avoids jargon and does not allow insurers to market to users.  

In addition to deciding at what age a participant would like to begin receiving retirement income, individuals can also choose from a life-only annuity, life with cash refund, life with fixed period or fixed period only.  

Participants can also use the platform’s educational resources, a help desk staffed by licensed advisers and an income gap calculator to help navigate their options. 

“Everything we do is about complementing [the income] you have,” Hueler says. “Everyone is going to have a variety of income sources, so you’re just really trying to help them make the most of the portion they want fully secured.” 

Compliance September 6, 2023

DOL Sues Firm for Pocketing Participants’ 401(k) Assets

The Department of Labor sued Minnesota technology consultant Virtual Matrix after an investigation found fiduciaries of the profit-sharing plan permitted the employer to benefit from plan assets.

Reported by

IT consultant Virtual Matrix Corp. was sued on August 30 by the Department of Labor for allegedly withholding $45,972.08—for certain payroll periods running from April 1, 2021, through October 31, 2022—from its employees’ pay as employee contributions to the plan, retaining the deferrals and failing to remit the assets to the plan.

The DOL, in the name of acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, sued the Edina, Minnesota-based company in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on one count of a fiduciary breach under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Along with Virtual Matrix, the defendants include company CEO Suman Thotakura and the Virtual Matrix 401(K) profit-sharing plan. Per the terms of the plan, Thotakura was named a special plan trustee for purposes of determining and collecting contributions to the plan, the DOL complaint notes.

Thotakura caused the company to retain $45,972.08 in deferred employee salary contributions and $759.70 in participant loan repayments in Virtual’s general operating account and to use those funds for Virtual’s business expenses, according to the complaint.

The Virtual Matrix 401(K) P/S Plan held $568,498 in total retirement assets for 27 participants as of the most recent data available, a 2021 Form 5500 filing.   

The DOL suit follows an Employee Benefits Security Administration investigation, the DOL stated in a press release.

“Failing to forward voluntary employee contributions to employee retirement plans violates employees’ trust and denies workers the opportunity to earn interest on their investments and prepare for their future,” Mark Underwood, EBSA’s Kansas City, Missouri, regional director, said in a statement.

Per DOL regulations, participant contributions must be remitted to the plan as of the earliest date on which such contributions can reasonably be segregated from the employer’s general assets or no later than the 15th business day of the month following the month in which the participant contribution amounts are received by the employer.

Virtual established the plan on January 1, 2014, to provide retirement benefits to its employees and their beneficiaries, the complaint shows.

The DOL complaint seeks to make the plan whole and permanently ban the company and its CEO from serving or acting as fiduciaries or service providers to any other ERISA-covered employee benefit plan and to remove them from fiduciary positions they now hold.

Virtual Matrix did not return requests for comment.

The DOL has sued at least six different retirement or profit-sharing plan sponsors in 2023. 

«