Agilis Partners is moving into the annuity business with the launch of a new product for employees participating in workplace retirement savings plans, the actuarial and investment consulting firm firm said in a news release Oct. 24.
The product, called Agilis PensionBuilder, allows retirement plan participants to convert their savings into guaranteed lifetime income. It is being marketed to sponsors of defined contribution retirement plans.
“PensionBuilder allows plan sponsors to provide their employees with the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have a guaranteed income stream throughout their retirement,” said Tom Cassara, CEO of Agilis, in the news release.
Workers can use the new platform to select how much of their retirement plan balance they wish to convert into different types of annuities. PensionBuilder then secures competitive bids from insurance companies, converting a portion of the retirement savings into annuities based on prevailing market rates and group pricing, the firm said.
Because the annuity purchases are made outside the retirement plan via individual retirement accounts, Agilis is positioning the product as a way for plan sponsors to mitigate their fiduciary risk.
“Our solution is easy to implement, simple to communicate, and flexible in payout options – all at no cost to the company and with Agilis acting as a fiduciary in selecting the insurer,” said Michael Clark, chief commercial officer at Agilis, in the news release.
No clients yet
Clark said separately in an email that while the firm has had many informal conversations with plan sponsors, it has not yet signed up any clients.
“Based on conversations with several Fortune 500 companies, we expect to implement and transact in early 2025,” he said. “We’ve had a great deal of enthusiasm from sponsors that want to provide guaranteed lifetime income to their DC plan participants but are worried about fiduciary risk and frustrated by low utilization.”
Alight Solutions is Agilis’ partner in building the platform and the companion Alight PensionBuilder participant website.
Once a retirement plan sponsor offers the product to its plan participants, Agilis will reach out directly to employees on how to use PensionBuilder.
“Employees will then be able to access the Alight PensionBuilder website through single sign-on from their current record-keeper’s website, where they will have access to educational materials, modeling tools and the ability to make their PensionBuilder elections,” Clark said.