Putnam CEO calls for new regulator to oversee lifetime-income products

Bob Reynolds, chief executive of Putnam Investments, today called for the establishment of a regulatory body to approve lifetime-income products. The lifetime-income security agency would be empowered to vet the full range of income solutions and administer an industry-funded insurance pool, Mr. Reynolds said. Insurers with top-tier credit scores and those who offer conservative annuity or drawdown plans would pay lower fees into the pool than those with lower scores or aggressive plans, he said. Mr. Reynolds also called for a national insurance charter. “We have had conversations with many insurers and legislators in Washington; there's strong interest for this [agency], and I think it's something viable,” Mr. Reynolds said at the Insured Retirement Institute's annual conference in Boston this morning. “It will take a cross section of insurers and people in the industry to really push this forward.” Such a regulatory agency would have the same impact on confidence as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had following the banking crisis during the Great Depression. “At a single stroke, this new national insurance regulator would give plan sponsors and advisers confidence that nationally approved lifetime-income solutions would keep their promises,” he said.