Product & Service Launches – 3/28/24

Guardian Life Adds New RILAs

The Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America has brought to market new registered index-linked annuities.

The annuity seller’s Guardian MarketPerform is a long-term, tax-deferred retirement annuity with three features designed to:

• Limit and in some cases avoid losses due to poor market performance, based on the amount of buffer protection selected;
• Track indices with upside potential, subject to a possible cap set in advance, enabling individuals to take advantage of market growth; and
• Enable individuals to choose from a curated range of investment options to best support their retirement planning goals.

The offering adds to Guardian Life’s suite of retirement-focused annuities, including a fixed-index annuity, single premium deferred fixed annuity, single premium immediate annuity and deferred income annuity. The firm had more than $3 billion in annuity sales in 2023, according to the announcement.

Voyant Offers Retirement Planning Solutions to Advisers

Voyant, a wealth management, wellness and client digital engagement solutions provider owned by AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc., has added new retirement-based solutions for advisers to its platform.

The new solutions are on the Voyant AdviserGo platform and address client decisions related to longevity risk, long-term care and disability. The solutions are designed to allow advisers to illustrate solutions quickly and simply, so they can work with clients on financial decisions related to retirement.

“Our new tools are tailored to help advisers visualize their clients’ lives beyond their careers, enabling them to demonstrate the impact of complex products within the context of their larger financial pictures,” said Voyant CEO David Kaufman in a statement.

The tools include:

• Voyant Longevity Risk:a modeling tool that allows advisers to demonstrate the financial and psychological benefits of getting secure income from annuity products;
• Voyant Disability helps advisers asses the financial implications of unexpected life events such as injuries or illnesses on their clients’ wealth and retirement savings; and
• Voyant Long-Term Caregives advisers the ability to illustrate the financial impact of a loved one needing long-term care, including the care itself and lasting financial effects.

ADP Teams With Summer on SECURE 2.0 Student Loan Retirement Match

ADP Inc. and student loan benefit provider Summer PBC announced an integration to support benefits related to student loan repayments. The partnership will allow ADP’s 401(k) plan sponsor clients, for a fee, tto offer student loan retirement matching and other student debt tools through Summer’s platform.

Employers who use ADP’s 401(k) retirement solutions can opt in to match employees’ qualifying student loan payments with a contribution to their retirement plans. Participants will then be able to enroll in the program, verify their loans and payments, and report information for an annual contribution via ADP’s Summer Secure platform.

“It’s a low-cost solution that can be implemented at scale,” said Chris Magno, a senior vice president and general manager of retirement services at ADP, in a statement. “Summer and ADP have made it easy and affordable for plan sponsors of all sizes to opt in and support their employee populations.”

Other Summer student loan tools on offer include a customized assessment of employees’ eligibility for repayment strategies, federal, state, and local student loan programs and access to educational resources on student loans and saving for college.

Fidelity Launches Global Wallet for Multinational Benefit Management

Fidelity Investments has launched Global Wallet, a benefits management solution for multinational companies.

The solution is designed to help address a pain point for Fidelity clients operating across countries, including: the rising cost of delivering benefits globally, the complex process of administering employee benefits across multiple countries and a lack of unified global employee experience, according to the firm.

“The rigidity of global benefits programs is leading to manual HR administration, employee confusion, costly mistakes, and inefficient use of benefits, as well as concerns around data privacy and security,” a spokesperson wrote via email.

Fidelity partnered with employee benefit platform Thanks Ben LTD, which streamlines the contract process and guarantees compliance with all local and global regulations.

The firm launched the solution a few months ago and reported it is “receiving positive feedback from its first several clients about the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the solution.”