FinFit Partners With Sunny Day Fund to Add Emergency Savings Accounts

FinFit, a financial wellness platform available to U.S. employers, has partnered with Sunny Day Fund to make workplace emergency savings accounts available to its customers via the FinFit SafetyNet platform.

The FinFit SafetyNet platform is comprised of three elements:

• Emergency savings: Employees elect to have an amount of their choosing deposited into their Sunny Day Fund emergency savings account each pay period. Payroll integration is used to set up the withholding;
• Emergency credit: Employees can access funds at any time to cover unexpected expenses or make financial ends meet; and
• Debt consolidation loan: Employees can pay down debt at a lower rate or avoid high-cost payday loans or borrowing from retirement savings. They can also choose to “plus-up” their loan repayment to add to their emergency savings account while they are repaying their loan, or “spill over” the same repayment amount into savings after their loan is repaid in full.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Sunny Day Fund to help workers build short-term liquidity and longer-term savings all in one seamless experience,” Michael Woodhead, chief commercial officer of FinFit, said in a statement. “For such a big undertaking, we needed a partner with demonstrable success in moving people from debt into savings.”

 

Equitable Enhances Flagship Retirement Solution for K-12 Educators

Equitable, a financial services organization and principal franchise of Equitable Holdings Inc., announced a new series in its Equi-Vest line of deferred variable annuity products, Equi-Vest Series 202. This enhanced version is designed to help educators supplement their retirement savings.

Equi-Vest Series 202 is available to employees enrolled in a 403(b) plan at public schools across the United States. The structured investment option allows participants to capitalize on potential market gains, up to a cap, while maintaining a level of protection against market losses. Specifically, it provides buffered indexed options that include downside protection on losses up to 30%, longer segment periods and the opportunity to lock in gains.

It also provides growth potential that mirrors the index selected, up to a cap. Equi-Vest is the only 403(b) product in the market that offers a variable annuity with an index-linked option, according to FinFit.

“Our new EQUI-VEST series builds on our expertise as the leading provider of registered index-linked annuities, adding an investment option that helps address these concerns,” Jim Kais, head of group retirement for Equitable, said in a statement. “We hope this makes planning for the future a bit more reassuring for educators, so they can stay focused on teaching their students.”

Munich Re Launches Longevity Reinsurance Product for US and Canada Markets

Munich Re North America Life has announced a new offering—longevity reinsurance—aimed at allowing clients to accumulate assets while transferring biometric risk.

Clients can pass on longevity risk by converting uncertain future pension or annuity payments into a fixed cash flow stream, locking in mortality assumptions and a fee at inception.

With the increased reserve and capital requirements for longevity risks, and further changes coming in the U.S., insurers and asset reinsurers can leverage Munich Re’s strong balance sheet and deep mortality expertise.

“We are known for applying our scale, capacity, and insight to solve complex client challenges in ways that enable them to grow their businesses,” Mary Forrest, president and CEO of Munich Re North America Life, said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with clients to evaluate the impact of longevity reinsurance and to designing a customized approach that supports their specific goals.”

T. Rowe’s TDF Team Launches Personalized Offering

T. Rowe Price, one of the country’s largest providers of target-date funds, introduced Personalized Retirement Manager, a more customized investment allocation built on its TDF asset allocation methodology.

The product launched in August on T. Rowe Price’s recordkeeping platform and is available to some plan sponsors as a dynamic qualified default investment alternative that flips participants into the solution at some point near middle age, says Wyatt Lee, head of target-date strategies at the T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

“When I think of managed accounts, I think of a stand-alone offering: I input my data, I get the results,” Lee says. “What’s different about [PRM] is that we’ve worked hard to try to tie this in seamlessly with our target-date offering.”

Lee says, unlike being moved from TDF investments into a totally new investment methodology and framework, T. Rowe’s retirement manager keeps participants in the same underlying investments as the TDF, with adjustments made from data pulled from the recordkeeper, along with any inputs the participant provides.