One of the challenges facing retirees as they approach the next phase of their lives is ensuring that their savings last through retirement. In fact, MetLife research found that a majority (71%) of U.S. employees are concerned about outliving their retirement savings, up from 60% just two years ago. To address these concerns and help retirees enjoy a more confident future, MetLife is working with Fidelity Investments® to offer the MetLife Guaranteed Income Program®, a fixed immediate income annuity, through Fidelity’s new retirement income solution, Guaranteed Income Direct.
The passage of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act in late 2019 removed the fiduciary barriers to offering lifetime income solutions through the workplace. As a result, MetLife research indicates growing interest in these products among plan participants and an increasing number of plan sponsors taking actions to implement them.
The availability of MetLife’s guaranteed income offering through Fidelity’s Guaranteed Income Direct solution is designed to help expand access to immediate income annuities by allowing plan sponsors to easily offer retirement income options within their defined contribution (DC) plans. This solution enables participants at all savings levels to purchase an immediate income annuity through an insurer selected by their employer and annuitize any portion of their savings. All funds not used to purchase the annuity remain in the plan.
“At MetLife, we believe simplicity should be the guiding principle when offering income annuities, and this solution makes it simple for plan sponsors to offer guaranteed income and simple for plan participants to annuitize their savings,” says Melissa Moore, senior vice president and head of Annuities at MetLife. “Having a guaranteed stream of income can help retirees budget for their day-to-day expenses and protect against depleting their savings too quickly.”
By being able to obtain a guaranteed stream of income through their employer, plan participants can take an important step in creating a financially secure future. In contrast, retirees who choose to receive their savings as a lump sum rather than annuitize can face significant obstacles, including the risk of depleting their money too quickly and needing to fund a portion of their retirement years with no income other than Social Security. Unfortunately, this is a reality for many—a MetLife study found one in three retirees (34%) who took a lump sum from their DC plan, depleted the lump sum in 5 years, on average.
“MetLife has a long history and deep expertise in offering retirement income solutions. We are committed to ensuring financial security for retirees and are pleased to be working with Fidelity Investments and middleware provider Micruity, who share our dedication to enabling positive retirement outcomes,” says Moore. “Through Guaranteed Income Direct, Fidelity has brought a powerful new solution to this market and this innovation makes vital protection products more accessible to employees.”
About Micruity
Micruity is a data infrastructure company on a mission to improve retirement income security. The Micruity Advanced Routing System (MARS™) facilitates frictionless data sharing between insurers, asset managers, recordkeepers, and connected stakeholders through a single point of service that lowers the administrative burden and enhances the user experience of retirement income products, enabling plan sponsors to turn retirement savings plans into retirement income plans at scale.
About MetLife
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers build a more confident future. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.
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Contacts
MetLife:
Judi Mahaney
jmahaney@metlife.com
212-578-7977
