Product & Service Launches – 2/29/24

Robinhood Launches IRA for Gig Companies

Robinhood Markets Inc. has furthered its individual retirement account offerings with the launch of Robinhood Retirement For Independent Workers.

The broker/dealer is launching the offering to employees of Grubhub, Taskrabbit and Gopuff, it announced Thursday. Those employees will have access to a match from Robinhood of 1% to 3% for the first year of contributions and unlimited one-on-one financial counseling from GreenPath Financial Wellness.

Robinhood also noted “easy onboarding” for the independent workers at the companies, with a rollout to workers “soon,” according to the announcement. Robinhood expects to add more companies in the future.

The program is an extension of Robinhood Retirement, launched in January 2023, which consists of an IRA with a 1% match. That platform had gathered nearly $1 billion in assets as of August 2023

The Hartford Partners With Origin on Financial Wellness Tool

Employee benefits and insurance firm The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is partnering with Origin on a financial wellness tool for employers to offer workers.

The Hartford will give group benefit clients access to Origin’s Financial Planning platform to offer financial education, budgeting and planning tools to help their employees manage personal finances and retirement planning.

The Financial Planning platform provides the tools at no initial cost to users; employers or their employees have the option to purchase additional services, such as tax filing and access to a certified financial planner for one-on-one advice.

“Financial stress has a major impact on employer productivity,” said Matt Watson, the founder and CEO of Origin, in a statement. “Even though financial wellness starts with a paycheck, many employers aren’t providing financial wellness assistance to their employees. Origin’s new relationship with The Hartford will help increase employee access to high-quality financial planning.”

MetLife Joins Fidelity’s New Retirement Lifetime Income Offering

MetLife has joined other insurance companies offering annuities to retirement plan participants via Fidelity Investments’ Guaranteed Income Direct program.

MetLife’s offering will join other insurers, including Pacific Life, Prudential Financial and Western & Southern Financial Group, in making their immediate annuities available to plan sponsors to, in turn, offer participants. The solution allows participants to purchase a recommended annuity through the insurer to annuitize any portion of their retirement savings; funds not used to purchase the annuity will remain in the workplace retirement plan.

MetLife cited one of its studies noting that about one in three retirees (34%) who took a lump sum from their defined contribution plan depleted the money in an average of five years.

“Having a guaranteed stream of income can help retirees budget for their day-to-day expenses and protect against depleting their savings too quickly,” said Melissa Moore, a senior vice president and head of annuities at MetLife, in a statement.

T. Rowe Price to Use Clearwater Analytics’ Stable Value Investment Solution

T. Rowe Price has selected Clearwater Analytics’ stable value investment selection services to expand its insurance-backed fixed-income investment options to clients.

“Clearwater for Stable Value” will provide T. Rowe Price with services that include the creation of custom trade tickets for investment contract issuers and other third parties, the firms noted. That will enable T. Rowe Price to add to its stable value technology with a single software-as-a-service solution to teams with the same reconciled investment data each day.

The solution will also give T. Rowe Price a view of market and contract values, accounting, external manager data, crediting rate calculations and streamlined contract issuer trade documents, according to the announcement.

“Clearwater for Stable Value is the technology that will allow us to advance our stable value fund operations and support our continued business growth,” said Antonio ‘Tony’ Luna, T. Rowe Price’s head of stable asset management, in a statement.