MetLife’s 2016 Lifetime Income Poll Reveals Plan Sponsors Want More Regulatory Clarity to Make It Easier to Offer Guaranteed Income Solutions
NEW YORK, September 7, 2016 – A large majority of plan sponsors (85%) agree that the core purpose of a defined contribution (DC) plan should be to serve as an income source during retirement, according to the MetLife 2016 Lifetime Income Poll, released today. This represents a subtle but significant sea change from the 9% of plan sponsors in a 2012 MetLife study who believed that the primary focus of their DC plan was to provide retirement income, as opposed to retirement savings.1
The Lifetime Income Poll gauged plan sponsors’ familiarity with – and knowledge about – regulatory developments by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Treasury to strengthen retirement security among U.S. workers; nine in ten plan sponsors (94%) are familiar with regulators’ lifetime income efforts. The full report examining these findings is available at: metlife.com/LifetimeIncomePoll.
“No longer can DC plans exist solely as retirement savings plans,” says Tim Brown, senior vice president and head of Life & Income Funding Solutions with MetLife. “The core purpose of today’s DC plans must be recast to move beyond retirement savings to retirement income, by enabling plan sponsors to provide the education, tools and solutions to help participants make their savings last a lifetime.”