401k News Briefs: Lincoln Financial Adds Income America; OneAmerica Teams with Morningstar

Participants in Lincoln National’s 401k will be able to convert savings into guaranteed income for life; OneAmerica deal with Morningstar Investment Management means more personalized advice for retirement plan accounts
401k news briefs
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Lincoln selects Income America to offer lifetime income to employees

Income America announced that Lincoln Financial Group has decided, through their benefit plans fiduciary committee, to offer Income America 5ForLife to participants (generally all employees of Lincoln) in the Lincoln National Corporation 401k Savings Plan.

The addition gives their plan participants the ability to turn their savings into monthly retirement income for life.

“Our mission at Lincoln Financial Group is to help more Americans achieve financial security, and our own employees are no exception,” Jonmike Daly, senior vice president, Total Rewards, Lincoln Financial Group, said in a statement. “Income America is a good fit for our plan with its strong lifetime income guarantees and savings protection, and it supports our commitment to ensure our employees not only have a robust retirement plan but also have a plan for retirement.”

The Lincoln employee plan has approximately 17,000  participants with about $3 billion of total assets as of September 30.

Income America 5ForLife is built on a target date glide path designed by American Century and held in a portable, non-proprietary, multi-insured and multi-managed Collective Investment Trust (CIT), which provides the Lincoln plan access to an innovative and simple solution. In addition, it is designed to be SECURE Act-compliant and to meet ERISA 404 and 3(38) fiduciary requirements.

“We are thrilled to see strong demand from the marketplace for this solution and look forward to working with Lincoln to offer a lifetime income option for their plan participants,” Matt Wolniewicz, President of Income America, added. “Our simply designed solution provides participants protection of their accumulated savings, strong lifetime income guarantees and a continuous ability to access their underlying account.”

It’s the 7th plan Income America has won since its inception, Wolniewicz said.

The Income America consortium was formed to address the need for guaranteed monthly retirement income. The consortium is made up of American Century Investments, Lincoln Financial Group, Nationwide, SS&C Technologies, Wilmington Trust, N.A. and Wilshire. In March 2021, the consortium launched Income America 5ForLife, an in-plan target-date series with guaranteed income for life, designed to help retirement plan participants transition from the accumulation phase of retirement investing to the decumulation stage.

OneAmerica launches advisor managed accounts with Morningstar

OneAmerica announced Dec. 7 it is teaming with one of the largest managed retirement accounts providers in the industry, Morningstar Investment Management. This collaboration enables advisors to deliver more tailored savings and investment advice to plan participants.

OneAmerica would provide recordkeeper services through Morningstar Investment Management to Retirement Investment Adviser (RIA) firms in a white-label version under the RIA’s brand. A few pilot firms are already on board and others are slated to join in 2022.

This new managed account service gives plan participants more personalized advice based on portfolios that are aligned with their advisor firm’s investment experience and philosophies. Participants receive a personalized investment recommendation based upon many factors such as age, salary, account balance, contribution rate, gender, and risk capacity. In addition, individuals can use managed accounts to aggregate previous employer retirement plans—along with IRAs, stock purchase plans, pensions, equity compensation, and deferred compensation—to receive high-level asset allocation guidance.

The advisor managed account service leverages Morningstar Investment Management’s existing managed accounts user interface and serves as the fiduciary for portfolio assignment and for the recommendations on factors such as savings rate and retirement age. The RIA firm is the 3(38) fiduciary for fund selection and asset allocation decisions. OneAmerica has integrated the platform into its recordkeeping system, allowing for a seamless participant experience.

“By working with a recognized industry name like Morningstar Investment Management, we’re building upon the already rich customization opportunities we offer our plan advisors, enabling them to further tailor the support they provide to participants,” said Sandy McCarthy, president of retirement services at Indianapolis-based OneAmerica.

Nationally, Morningstar Investment Management serves more than 118,000 plans through two dozen plan providers and its reach for its various managed accounts services exceeds 1.7 million users as of September 30, 2021.

SEE ALSO:

• Why the Time is (Finally) Right for Lifetime Income in 401ks

Brian Anderson Editor
Editor-in-Chief at  | banderson@401kspecialist.com | + posts

Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.

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