Financial Education, Protecting Savings Themes for Plan Sponsors in 2021

Defined contribution plan sponsors are rethinking investments, but not much interested in annuities, T. Rowe Price finds.

More plan sponsors are emphasizing financial wellness practices in 2021, but, in a sea of offerings, some specific goals are taking precedence.

Among recent survey findings, a T. Rowe Price defined contribution (DC) consultant study found the No. 1 focus plan sponsors have for the upcoming year is improving employees’ financial knowledge. In a time when many have been rocked by economic hardship, employers are also working with their employees to determine how much to save and how to measure progress, along with building emergency savings, managing general debt and estimating retirement income needs.

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Lorie Latham, a senior DC strategist for global investment services at T. Rowe Price, says she expects more sponsors and participants will focus on retirement income in the new year, especially concerning longevity risk. Latham anticipates a rise in employee education focusing on basic retirement savings practices, along with individual offerings including core bonds and stable value funds.

“Plan sponsors are looking more at stable value. They’re seeing a dual role for stable value to be used as a building block for those constructing a portfolio,” she says. Additionally, Latham says she thinks there will be a desire for a suite of retirement options, rather than select offerings, in the future.

Annuity options—which many thought would gain more interest from plan sponsors after the passage of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE) passed in late December 2019—received the lowest interest marks in the survey, according to Latham. While many retirement industry experts say they believe annuities are misunderstood, plan sponsors are still wary of defaulting participants into an annuity, even with portability and safe harbor provisions, Latham explains. In an additional study conducted by T. Rowe Price, 61% of participants stated that the SECURE Act did not motivate them to consider lifetime income options.

“That may not be what every individual wants to pursue,” she says. “It’s still complicated for a plan sponsor to think about, ‘Do I have an in-plan annuity, out-of-plan, etc.’ It still brings a fair amount of complexity.”

Instead, Latham expects to see qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) evolve, as more participants consider their longevity in retirement and more plan sponsors become involved in participants’ retirements. According to T. Rowe Price research, there is an 80% chance or more of one person in a couple living past 80 years old.

“It’s now beyond a savings mindset and toward the retirement journey,” Latham notes. “The marker of ‘at retirement’ doesn’t mean that we should stop thinking about the approach to the portfolio and the growth.”

DOL Adopts New Prohibited Transaction Exemption

The regulator has finalized a potentially important new prohibited transaction exemption.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has published the final version of its updated fiduciary rule regulation, which it has titled “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees.”

The new regulation package stretches to nearly 300 pages, so it will naturally take some time for the full implications to be realized. However, a preliminary review suggests the final version resembles the version proposed this summer. Namely, the final regulation confirms the reinstatement of the traditional “five-part test” for determining fiduciary status, and the package includes the establishment of a new prohibited transaction exemption that aligns with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI).

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Under the DOL’s five-part test, for assistance or instruction to constitute “fiduciary investment advice,” a financial institution or investment professional who is not a fiduciary under another provision of the law must trigger all of the following stipulations:

  • Render advice to the plan as to the value of securities or other property, or make recommendations as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling securities or other property;
  • On a regular basis;
  • Pursuant to a mutual agreement, arrangement or understanding with the plan, plan fiduciary or individual retirement account (IRA) owner, that;
  • The advice will serve as a primary basis for investment decisions with respect to plan or IRA assets, and that;
  • The advice will be individualized based on the particular needs of the plan or IRA.

According to a fact sheet shared by the DOL, advice pertaining to IRA rollovers will not necessarily trigger fiduciary status under the new paradigm. Here’s how the fact sheet describes whether rollover-related guidance is in fact fiduciary investment advice: “Advice to take a distribution from an employee benefit plan and roll over the assets to an IRA may be an isolated and independent transaction that would fail to meet the regular-basis prong of the five-part test. On the other hand, advice to roll over employee benefit plan assets can occur as part of an ongoing relationship or an anticipated ongoing relationship that an individual enjoys with his or her advice provider.”

It is likely that this provision of the rulemaking will receive significant scrutiny in the coming days and weeks, given the interest consumer protection organizations have in addressing potential abuse related to IRA rollovers into higher-fee products and services.

According to the fact sheet, the new proposed class exemption would be available to registered investment advisers (RIAs), broker/dealers (B/Ds), insurance companies, banks and individual investment professionals who are their employees or agents.

“The new proposed class exemption would permit investment advice fiduciaries to receive compensation as a result of providing fiduciary investment advice, including fiduciary investment advice to roll over a participant’s account in an employee benefit plan to an IRA and other similar types of rollover recommendations,” the fact sheet states. “The new proposed class exemption would also permit investment advice fiduciaries to enter into ‘principal transactions’ in which they could sell or purchase certain securities and other investments from their own inventories to or from plans and IRAs.”

The DOL says the proposed class exemption would require fiduciary investment advice to be provided in accordance with the following criteria: “A best interest standard, a reasonable compensation standard and a requirement to make no materially misleading statements about recommended investment transactions and other relevant matters.” Ostensibly, by complying with Reg BI, advisers or other investment professionals will satisfy all three of these criteria.

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