By Nationwide Retirement Solutions

The SECURE Act (Setting Every Community up for Retirement Enhancement Act) signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019, opened a new era of opportunity for retirement plan participants by expanding the ability for plan sponsors to help participants not only plan for retirement, but also live in retirement. One way the Act will help is by making in-plan guarantees within defined contribution plans such 457(b)s and 401(a)s more accessible and portable than before.

This comes at an opportune time as American savers weather a perfect retirement storm. Given the pandemic’s impact on market volatility, consumers are much more interested than ever before1 in solutions that can provide a level of certainty and protection. Retirees are living longer and facing greater pressure to fund their own retirement, as costs for healthcare and long-term care continue to rise. Employers (plan sponsors) are looking for accessible, portable and affordable solutions to help their employees protect their savings and ensure income in retirement.

To meet this need, Nationwide announced a suite of new in-plan guarantee solutions to meet the needs of plan sponsors and participants.

“We’re confident that a suite of solutions will give plan sponsors the flexibility to select the option that’s best for their participants,” said Eric Stevenson, President of Nationwide Retirement Solutions. “Our approach is unique, by going beyond retirees’ well-established need for guaranteed income, to also address their growing need to protect principal.”

As an established industry leader serving government and corporate retirement plans, as well as a top provider of annuities, Nationwide is uniquely equipped to address this challenge.  It has the in-house expertise to develop new solutions and deep partnerships across the industry to bring them to market.

Upon announcing a suite of in-plan guarantees in late 2020, Nationwide Retirement Solutions has seen strong momentum in plans adopting annuity-based protection and income solutions for retirement plan participants.

The momentum continues with Nationwide Indexed Principal Protection® (NW-IPP), an in-plan group fixed indexed annuity. This new investment option provides the potential for growth based on the return of a market index (subject to a cap rate) while also providing principal protection and liquidity.  Additionally, there are no investment minimums for participants wanting to allocate to NW-IPP.

There are now more than 600 plans that have adopted this solution. “The number of plans that have already adopted Nationwide Indexed Principal Protection in such a short period demonstrates the market was clearly ready for this type of solution and shows how plan sponsors recognize participants are looking for ways to protect their investments, while at the same time having the opportunity to grow their retirement nest egg,” added Stevenson. “Nationwide Indexed Principal Protection is one of the first fixed indexed annuities to be offered as an in-plan guarantee that can help participants address both of these needs.” For plan sponsors interested in learning more about NW-IPP, visit www.nrsforu.com/nwipp

Since launching NW-IPP, Nationwide continues to work with industry partners to introduce solutions offering guaranteed lifetime income. Structured as collective investment trusts (CITs), these investment options offer participants the opportunity to grow their retirement savings with the promise of generating guaranteed income in retirement – money they can’t outlive.  These solutions offer a simple experience along with useful planning tools, helping participants to worry less about running out of money in retirement.

Nationwide is excited to be able to offer solutions built to help participant plan for the future and reach their retirement goals.  To learn more about these additional solutions, contact your Nationwide representative.

1. The sixth annual Advisory Authority Survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Nationwide from May 27-June 25, 2020, among 1,768 financial advisers and 817 investors, ages 18+.

 Nationwide Indexed Principal Protection is a group fixed indexed annuity issued by Nationwide Life Insurance Company and held in the general account. Group fixed indexed annuities are not stock market investments and participants are not directly investing in a market index. Guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Transfers out of this contract to other funding providers are subject to certain restrictions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Legislature’s decision to focus bills to adopt the recommendations of Gov. Rick Snyder’s task force on the pension-OPEB crisis leaves Michigan’s 83 counties without adequate new tools they need to address funding of retirement benefits, MAC’s executive director said. Stephan W. Currie, who has served on both of Snyder’s task forces on this issue, said in response to the Legislature’s actions early Thursday morning, “We still need a variety of new tools to address commitments.” “Adoption of the task force recommendations” Currie added, “is a bare minimum effort on collecting data on the problem. The other side of the coin here is, of course, revenue. Heading into Wednesday, we saw good prospects on separate, but related, legislation that would have created a secure fund for county revenue sharing and set a schedule for increased payments. Those advances now appear to be stuck.” MAC supported the task force recommendations and, thus, supports the new versions of the bills, but Currie said that most of the work remains unfinished. “This fell far short of the mark,” he said. “But we will continue to work with our members and the state to, first, collect the best data on the problem and convince state lawmakers of the need to equip county governments with the tools and revenue they need to handle these benefits.”