After Rolling Stones tour, annuity group turns to research

An insurance industry group that hired the Rolling Stones last year to help promote annuities is undertaking a new venture, a research initiative it announced Monday.

The Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit supported by companies affiliated with the annuity industry, is launching what it calls the Retirement Income Institute, which will “bridge academic research and private sector solutions.”

The initiative follows the passage of the SECURE Act, which is likely to help expand the use of annuities in 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans – a market that insurers have long coveted.

The institute will receive advice from at least 10 scholars, including the American College of Financial Service’s Wade Pfau and Brookings Institution senior fellow, Bill Gale. The group is led by Jon Forman, from the University of Oklahoma College of Law; Leora Friedberg, associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Virginia’s economics department and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy; former Jackson National Life Insurance CEO, Barry Stowe; and Seth Harris, former acting Labor Secretary and deputy secretary of Labor.

The nonprofit has outlined four areas it will explore: “new approaches to the annuity puzzle, optimizing annuities in a retirement portfolio, private sector solutions for legal and regulatory barriers to annuities in 401(k) plans, and understanding differences in consumer behavior and decision-making.”

“Every day, the institute will be focused on overcoming roadblocks to connecting protected lifetime income with the retirement needs, goals and aspirations of consumers,” executive director Jean Statler said in the announcement.

The Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(6) nonprofit bills itself as an educational organization aimed at consumers, financial advisers and others. The group does not lobby, according to the spokesman.

The alliance, which started in 2018, was the sole sponsor of a 14-city Rolling Stones’ concert tour last year. That sponsorship included “a giant truck out front” of venues, with the phrase “Retire Like a Rockstar” blazoned on the side; as well as a banner reading “Long Live Annuities.”

Those messages reached a potential audience of about 1.5 million concertgoers during the tour, the group said.

Thursday, the Alliance for Lifetime Income announced a second round for sponsorship for the Rolling Stones. That 15-city concert tour begins in May, the group stated.