As more Americans report feeling unprepared for retirement, at least one financial powerhouse is offering a new kind of investment to provide a guaranteed income in those golden years.
BlackRock announced last month that it would offer LifePath Paycheck, which will provide payments similar to a pension to retirees. It’s designed to meet a rising demand for secured income as opposed to investment risk.
“We believe LifePath Paycheck will one day be the default retirement investment strategy, providing access to a predictable, paycheck-like income stream that can help improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in retirement,” said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
The program resembles a traditional 401(k) with a target-date retirement with a stock-heavy portfolio while an employee is young and switches to lower-risk assets as that person nears retirement age. But, as the Wall Street Journal reported, “the twist” is that the funds will invest in annuity contracts when an employee reaches 55.
“That allocation grows to roughly 30 percent of the portfolio by age 65,” the Journal wrote. “An employee has from age 59.5 until they turn 72 to buy an annuity with that allocation, locking in a monthly paycheck for life. The remaining 70 percent can remain invested in stocks and bonds or be redeemed for cash. If the employee opts not to buy an annuity, the 30 percent allocation behaves similarly to the fixed-income allocation in standard target-date funds.”
As the Baby Boomers aged into retirement and younger generations became more investment savvy, the investment management companies have had to develop more products to meet demands – and to ease fears.
Even before the latest news that Social Security is expected to run out of money in approximately 10 years, those looking down the road at retirement questioned its feasibility. More than half – 58 percent – of individuals either actively saving for retirement or already in retirement worry that they may outlive their assets, according to a report last year from research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.
More than half of retirees – 54 percent – rely on Social Security as their primary source of income, and of those, Cerulli found that 20 percent have no other income.
MetLife and Fidelity have announced a new partnership that’s also providing a guaranteed lifetime income product that aims to provide some measure of certainty to future retirees looking for income security.
It remains to be seen how successful the MetLife/Fidelity and BlackRock products will become.
So far, 14 retirement-plan sponsors have signed on with BlackRock’s LifePath, including Avangrid, a sustainable energy company, and Adventist HealthCare. Avangrid was the first company to roll out the program; it is now the default investment option in employees’ 401(k)s.
“By taking some of the guesswork out of financial planning, we’re enabling our employees to focus on what they do best – accelerating transformation for our customers and communities by pioneering a brighter clean energy future,” said Paul Visconti, senior director of Total Health and Retirement Programs at Avangrid.
Making retirement savings less complex is likely to be more attractive to employees who struggle to make sense of complicated investment and retirement scenarios.
Jason Kephart, director for multiasset ratings at Morningstar, told the Journal that major employees are in a wait-and-see mode to determine whether they will invest.
“There are fees in the spread of the annuity that you can’t see,” Kephart said. “That opaqueness opens itself up to the chance of litigation risk.”
But, he added that if BlackRock’s fund picks up momentum, other retirement plans will offer similar programs.
A recent survey from Northwestern Mutual found the typical worker believes he or she will need $1.46 million to retire comfortably. That’s a 53 percent jump from the savings target in 2020. Most people are no where near reaching that goal with the average retirement account today holding $88,400.
Younger workers also want to retire earlier, which means they will need a larger nest egg.
Aditi Javeri Gokhale, chief strategy officer at Northwestern Mutual, told CBS MoneyWatch the 20-something Gen Z employees plan to retire at 60 and with nearly one in three believing they’ll live to approximately 100, they will need a 40-year retirement fund.
BlackRock believes they are on the frontline of a new development in the investment market.
“BlackRock pioneered the first target date fund over 30 years ago, and LifePath Paycheck represents the next phase of BlackRock’s leadership in retirement,” the company said. “We continue to develop innovative solutions for Americans that are affordable, easy to use, and can provide more economic security to retirees.”
