Navigating the New Age of Retirement Services

Laying the foundation for long-term financial stability means more than the traditional approaches to saving for retirement. How can one meet the needs of participants as well as work together to add value and seize opportunity? 

Experts and industry leaders offered perspectives in recent panel discussions at the SPARK Forum concerning ways to help participants have a well-financed retirement—through work with individuals as well as through cooperation with other parts of the industry. 

In “Beyond Accumulation: Navigating the New Age of Retirement Services,” a discussion moderated by Josie Amendola, Director, Relationship Manager at BlackRock, panelists included Michael De Feo, Head of Defined Contribution Distribution at Allianz Life; Sean Murray, Head of Retirement at Envestnet; Jenny Glowacki, Vice President and Head of In-Plan Retirement Income at Corebridge Financial; and Elizabeth Heffernan, Head of Partnerships and Consulting Strategy at Micruity. 

All Together Now

Murray and Glowacki stressed the importance of partnerships in the effort to effectively help build retirement security in a changing environment. That is “the only way for this to take off, said Murray, adding, “There is no way any one firm can bring all the answers together.” 

It is important to get partners to “understand there is a point at which they have to get involved,” said De Feo. But he added that it also is important to consider functionality and other plan features that can be useful to them. 

Murray further suggested that one should consider what the plan sponsor wants in a particular plan. 

Working with Participants 

Personalization is one of the keys to meeting participants’ needs, panelists argued. It is not always realistic to expect everyone in an employer’s workforce to want—and be best served by—the same retirement vehicle and solution, said Heffernan. De Feo agreed, and emphasized the need to personalize the approach a provider takes.

Many people have no idea how to spend down their retirement money, Heffernan said, and realize they need help with spending decisions. And, she added, they shouldn’t wait until required minimum distributions start to make those choices.

Engagement

Another key, Heffernan suggested, is engagement. “We need to spend a lot of time” on participant engagement, she said, telling attendees that it is necessary to get participants to be involved and not simply rely on default rates. Participants “need to understand the decisions they will be making,” she said. 

Glowacki highlighted another aspect of personalization important in building that engagement: working with a real live person. She argued that it is not enough to simply rely on digital forms of communication, remarking, “There will always be people who want contact with a human being.”

Reliable Income 

People love steady, regular money coming in, Heffernan and Murray noted. 

De Feo and Glowacki embraced engagement as important in helping participants build a reliable income stream; Glowacki asserted that without engagement, availability of retirement income solutions “will fall flat.” 

Another panel discussion, “Pension Reinvention” Is Here—Are You Ready?” also addressed retirement income and how to help participants have a reliable lifetime income stream. John Geli, President, Retirement Solutions at SS&C Technologies; Colbert Narcisse, Chief Product and Business Development Officer at TIAA; and Hutch Schafer, VP, Business Development at Nationwide Financial, were panelists in the discussion, which was moderated by Brendan McCarthy, National Sales Director DCIO at Nuveen. 

There is obviously a need to help individuals build a secure retirement, Schafer said, warning, “We’re at a tipping point.” McCarthy agreed, adding that “All are at risk of running out of money during retirement.”

It is important to help individuals have income that will last through their lifetime, McCarthy said, Geli adding that it should be predictable. However, Schafer noted that “predictable” does not necessarily mean “guaranteed.”

“How do we design a lifetime income solution across plan types?” Schafer asked. McCarthy suggested that “Things don’t have to change that much for participants, but we can change the solutions that serve them.” And he argued that a lifespan is not a reliable gauge for the industry, observing that not everyone makes it to age 65, but a percentage do live into their 90s. 

Panelists also evinced a sense of urgency. Geli warned that not having lifetime income solutions in place will be a problem for plan sponsors within the next two years; McCarthy agreed.