Retirement income products, or in-plan annuity options, have been available for over a decade, yet their utilization has been stagnant due to concerns about price, portability, and convertibility. With the recent market volatility in 2020 and recent passing of the SECURE Act, we have seen an industry push towards the research, development, and implementation of what are now referred to as “guaranteed income products.”

A newly proposed Senate bill by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, would enable participants to continue saving for retirement while repaying their student debt, even in the event they can't afford to make their own contributions to a 401(k) plan. This feature could be offered at the option of the employer and would apply only for expenses pertaining to higher education.

The tidal surge of funds flowing from actively managed funds into passive funds reached a tipping point in 2019, when Morningstar preliminary data indicated passive U.S. equity assets would surpass active equity assets for the first time. This inflection point was widely anticipated. Over the prior decade, active domestic equity funds leaked $1.3 trillion in outflows, while their passively managed counterparts logged nearly $1.4 trillion in the opposite direction.

COVID-19 has posed a duel set of related challenges for plan sponsors and participants. For employees, the pandemic has pitted more immediate financial needs against prioritizing planned savings — and shifted the traditional focus of employee-sponsored financial wellness programs from the future to the present. And sponsors face the difficulty of effectively engaging remote workers showing increased demand for financial wellness programs.