华盛顿考虑了年金

自去年冬天以来，当奥巴马白宫似乎赞同年度的概念作为401（k）投资期权，金钱管理和保险业一直是富有数百万界限贡献计划参与者的俘虏市场的欣喜若狂。

首先，在1月下旬，副总统的中产阶级的特遣部队建议“促进载有国家和其他形式的保证寿命收入”。日后，财政部和劳工部门联合要求投资业的评论“通过终身年度或其他安排提高雇主赞助退休计划的雇主退休保证的措施是什么措施。”亚博篮球怎么下串

The grand finale of the Labor–Treasury outreach occurred last week, when some four dozen representatives from money management firms, insurance companies, trade and professional associations, law offices and employee organizations spent two full days at a rare dual-department hearing in Washington D.C., nearly all of them trying to persuade the feds that the concept of annuity-like products is a good one.

一些发言者认为他们成功了。

新的“寿命收入”产品销售为401（k）投资选择 - 以及标准股票和债券基金的低回报，低风险选择。投资者将支付保费，以获得退休后的稳定终身的付款流。至少有十几家主要公司 - 包括Metlife，Puriential，Putnam，Alliancebernstein，西方生活保证有限公司和Blackrock - 销售或设计这些产品，以及他们中的大多数将发言人发送给听证会。

The industry’s ultimate wish is for Washington to write safe-harbor rules so that plan sponsors won’t be liable if they offer a guaranteed product from the next AIG Group and that vendor goes kaput.

当然，没有任何如此混凝土从本周的会议上预期 - 并且达到了任何一个。劳工发言人表示，她的部门将相当忙于评估它之前收到的800（！）在其决定下次做什么之前收到的书面和说出的评论。

不过，咨询公司塔沃森的退休研究总监Mark Warshawsky表示，他和他的同事在第一个到第二天的第二天，他和他的同事们注意到了18个财政部和劳工官员的态度。“在第一天，他们沉默，”他指出。“在第二天，他们问的问题就像”让我们假设这个安全港都可以完成这个问题，那会发生什么？“似乎有一点愿意努力解决这个问题。”

Prudential Retirement president Christine Marcks, who sat through four hours on the first day — and spoke about her firm’s guaranteed product, naturally — said that one government panelist went so far as to ask if there is a federal responsibility to provide some sort of guaranteed income product in 401(k) plans.

但即使是最安全的港口，也不会容易地从听证会到有利可图的产品。年金 - 甚至避免了一个单词的产品，而是看起来，品味，声音，气味和觉得并不是在401（k）计划中。

Only 1 to 2 percent of people turn their 401(k) balances into annuities when they retire; the rest love the heft of taking a lump sum. The new crop of annuities-as-investment-options have been even slower to take off. For instance, Jody Strakosch, MetLife’s national director of retirement products, admitted last month that she was “a little surprised” that no plan sponsors had signed up for her firm’s guaranteed product tied to a target-date fund, even two and a half years after it was launched.

投资者可能想要安全，特别是在经济艰难时期。尽管如此，经过几十年的营销，坚持认为他们可以在401（k）次（k）岁的情况下拯救非国有财富，而且在长期以来，这股票是他们的朋友，投资者觉得越来越低的年回报率。

弗兰霍桑是获奖的作者“Pension Dumping: The Reasons, the Wreckage, the Stakes for Wall Street” (Bloomberg Press) and “Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat” (John Wiley & Sons). She writes regularly about finance, health care and business ethics.