Empower unveils comprehensive retirement income suite

The DC plan provider is rolling out an expansive shelf of retirement solutions through multiple partnerships.

Empower, a subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco US, has announced a new comprehensive suite of retirement income products for participants in its defined-contribution plans.

Working with leading asset managers and insurance firms – including American Century Investments, BluePrint Income, and a partnership with American Funds and TIAA – the company has unveiled plans to roll out an expansive solutions shelf for its DC plan participants in coming weeks.

Consisting of in-plan and out-of-plan solutions, that shelf includes managed accounts with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit, a managed spend-down strategy and proprietary variable annuity, and access to a marketplace for annuities.

“The great opportunity in this new set of offerings from Empower is that it brings together the expertise of so many firms to deliver the promise of retirement income to the 18 million Americans we serve today,” Rich Linton, president and chief operating officer at Empower, said in a statement.

In its latest Empowering America’s Financial Journey survey, the firm found three-fifths (61 percent) of respondents are bracing for a future where they won’t have Social Security, or it will play a smaller role in fulfilling their retirement income needs.

Empower is also incorporating the TIAA Secure Income Account, TIAA’s guaranteed lifetime income solution, into its shelf. Under an agreement between the two firms, the SIA fixed annuity will be part of a new set of exclusive target-date collective investment trusts on the Empower platform.

According to TIAA, solutions that have SIA embedded give workers the flexibility to cash out during their working years, with the portability to take the SIA benefit if they leave the workforce or their employer, subject to certain plan rules.

“The retirement landscape is shifting from ‘dollars saved at retirement’ to ‘income through retirement,” Colbert Narcisse, TIAA’s chief product and business development officer, said in a separate statement.

“Plan design will be critical to ensuring people have the option to turn their assets into a stream of income,” Narcisse said.