The American Pension Retirement Plan: Your Opinion Counts

Topic: Fixing the Retirement System Subtopics: The American Retirement System • What Is Retirement Age? • Pension Retirement Plan Reform • Lifetime Annuities • 401k Annuities • 401k Annuities: A Proposal from TIAA-CREF• 401k Annuities: Popular Support • Cash Balance Accounts • White House Reform • Obama Retirement Reform • Social Security Statements as a Model • Models from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada • What the Public Wants • Multi-Employer Plans • Automatic 401k • Automatic IRA • Tom Harkin • Herb Kohl • Other Advocates of Pension Reform • Opposition to Reform

The employer pension retirement plan and the possibility of 401k annuities came under review by the Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department in early 2010.

You're Visiting Retire2Enjoy.com

The Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service at Work

The Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor spent much of 2010 reviewing ERISA regulations and pension retirement plan qualification rules under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to determine whether, and/or how, the Agencies should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans and in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) by facilitating access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a lifetime stream of income after retirement.

Your Chance to Opine about the Employer Pension Retirement Plan and 401k Annuities

The Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor solicited the country with a request for information, views, suggestions and comments from participants in employer pension plans, employers and other plan sponsors, plan service providers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public, on the important issue of the employer pension retirement plan and 401k annuities.

Input from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Against Mandated 401k Annuities

In response to the inquiries from the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Labor, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the Department of Labor regarding lifetime income options in the employer pension retirement plan. The request had solicited information from plan participants, employers and other plan sponsors, plan service providers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public.

The letter from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce detailed the Chamber's top concerns surrounding lifetime income products.

It first explained the importance of defined contribution plans and urged the Government not to underestimate the security they provide to millions of people.

The letter subsequently went into detail on specific issues. These included low take-up rates among participants, concerns over increased liabilities on employers, and incentives for employers to provide information on lifetime income products such as 401k annuities. The detail section ended with suggestions for changing the minimum required distribution rules.

The letter came down strong against the Government requiring 401k annuities and other lifetime income products in the defined contribution pension retirement plan.