Toland Consulting, LLC

Michael Finke, one of IncomePath's co-founders, had the opportunity to testify for the ERISA Advisory Council on the use of annuities within defaults.* He emphasized the benefit to average participants who receive lifetime income and recent research that shows that those with more guaranteed income spend more overall, as Paul Mulholland reported here in PLANSPONSOR. However, he also acknowledged that many plan sponsors remain concerned about the use of annuities despite the safe harbor protection of the SECURE Act. He offered some suggestions to help increase the plan fiduciary confidence in insurers. *No, Michael wasn't providing WebEx support, contrary to what the screen behind him suggests. (There's nobody better on the topic of retirement income, but we don't recommend him for tech support unless you want somebody to suggest toggling a switch off and on.) Follow us on LinkedIn for insights and updates and visit our website to download the "Freedom to Spend" white paper and learn more: www.incomepath.com https://lnkd.in/gYY3EXB9 #LicenseToSpend #ERISA #ERISAAdvisoryCouncil #NotTechSupport #retirement #401k Tamiko Toland U.S. Department of Labor Bill Ryan, MBA CAIA SPHR NEPC, LLC

Want a tasty morsel (💥 action items!) from Elizabeth Goldberg's excellent rundown of fiduciary issues employers face at the Pensions & Investments Retirement Income Conference? The slide I share here (with permission) on the DOL rule suggests plan sponsor staff are excluded from liability for making recommendations but should consider these housekeeping items: ✅ assess relationships with advisors/consultants that say they aren't acting as fiduciaries really aren't. ✅ review contracts for the same consistency. ✅ make sure participant education programs aren't recommendations under the revised standards. ✅ plan sponsors that provide investment advice should check against the revised standards. #401kAnnuityHub #AnnuityHub #fiduciary #education #401k Toland Consulting, LLC Morgan Lewis Nikki Pirrello

If emotional intelligence is the most important predictor of success, then what is there to do for people who just don't have it? 🤷 A lot, according to Catherine Sanderson, a Amherst College psychology professor who spoke at the AllianceBernstein Retirement Income Symposium a few weeks ago. Her talk resonated with me personally but what's best is that she acknowledges that people don't have to be born with all of these qualities to embody them. In the work context, these five characteristics drive success: 🪞Self-awareness: a sense of what you're both good and bad at so you can develop teams and improve personal skills accordingly 🥾 Grit: self-regulation and delayed gratification (think: marshmallow study) feed "big picture" thinking 🏎️ Internal motivation: if you control the outcomes, your internal drive needs to outweigh incentives that others control like pay or recognition 🫀 Empathy: duh 🦋 Social skills: team cohesion leads to better performance The best predictor of high performance in a team is psychological safety, yet it's harder to achieve in larger groups. She offered 10 strategies for achieving success whether you already have the traits to get you there. Check out her book, pictured, for more about how important it is to shift your mindset to live the life (in and out of work) that you want. Thanks again to the team at AllianceBernstein for including me in this fantastic event! I'm sure many of us picked up plenty of takeaways to help us all as we take lifetime income onward and upward! #AnnuityYoda #401kAnnuityHub #storytelling Toland Consulting, LLC Jennifer DeLong

I think too many tools today define failure as “going broke while living”, while “not enjoying enough of your savings” doesn’t get enough attention. Retirement spending should be a balance… where you want the person/couple to spend/consume a reasonable amount each year, given the myriad of uncertainties that exist. What makes planning for retirement a hot mess*, though, is the fact you don’t know how long you’re going to live, what the market is going to do, etc. As a result of this, I think many retirees become overly conservative in their spending. To be clear, this isn’t necessarily irrational… it’s just not optimal. In the “License to Spend” research with Michael Finke released with the Alliance for Lifetime Income, covered in this ThinkAdvisor by John Manganaro, we note how people who have more wealth (viewed holistically) in lifetime income spend more than those who have more wealth in savings (think like IRAs and 401(k) balances). In summary, we need to think about structing retirement income plans to not only focus on not going broke… but how to help people enjoy what they’ve got (when they can actually enjoy it!)… * yes, this is the technical term

The numbers don't lie. Bonds simply aren't as efficient as annuities for generating income in retirement, as our co-founder Michael Finke explains. Thanks to Robert Powell, CFP®, RMA® for touching on the value of annuities in retirement income planning for MarketWatch. Check out the article for the full story. Annuities make portfolios more efficient during retirement, giving people greater flexibility with the money they've saved. https://lnkd.in/gpwuY-_p Follow us on LinkedIn for updates and insights or visit our website to download the "Freedom to Spend" white paper that Bob refers to in the article: www.incomepath.com #BetterThanBonds #FreedomToSpend #WhitePaper #LifetimeIncome #FlexibleSpending #research Tamiko Toland

For literally decades, the in-plan retirement industry has been saying, “the time is now – things have changed.” Yet there has been precious little adoption by DC plan sponsors, participants, record keepers and advisors. At the recent gathering of the 4th annual RPA Retirement Income Roundtable & Think Tank hosted by  P&I, CIOs and product managers from aggregators, record keepers and broker dealers along with product manufacturers and connectivity companies gathered to ponder the question of how and when this industry “will give birth”. Big challenges remain but so do the obvious opportunities with retirement income at the crux of the convergence of wealth and retirement at the workplace. Read my recent WealthManagement.com column about how the industry is collaborating to bring much needed help to DC participants as the DB-ization of DC plans continues. David ArmstrongShlomo BenartziTrevor GaryJennifer DeLongDavid LevineFred ReishNikki PirrelloLew MinskyTim RouseMatthew Wolniewicz, AIFAscott colangeloTina SanchezCarrie Schroen, MBAMatthew Soifer, CFAKaren (Inkel) NeeleyChristopher McGlynn, CEBS®, CRPS®Katherine MooreRalph FerraroPatrick DuffyShawn W. DalyDavid Curylo, AIF®, CPFA®Justin FiskBrian CollinsDeb BoydenJeff CiminiBenjamin Thomason, JDMatthew GrayKate CookJim MasciaJack BarryNicholas CummingsRavi SodhaniChris WeirathJohn Faustino AIFA®, PPC®

Are older investors capable of "fending for themselves" when they invest in private equity, venture capital and hedge funds through Regulation D offerings of unregistered securities? This morning I'll be presenting my article with Tao Guo, Ph.D., CFP®, CFA®at the AICPA Engage conference which was selected as the Editor's Choice by the CFP Board's Financial Planning Review. We show that older investors are more likely to meet the accredited investor wealth threshold, and accredited investors in their 80s have lower financial sophistication scores than younger non-accredited investors. This creates opportunities for abusive sales to investors who don't possess the ability to evaluate complex securities, particularly in the defined contribution era. Stephen Horan, Ph.D., CFA, CIPM, CAIA Copy of the article on the SEC website: https://lnkd.in/gXHPnDUa