IRI UNVEILS 2025 RETIREMENT SECURITY BLUEPRINT

The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) released its 2025 Retirement Security Blueprint, which includes 33 proposals to enhance and strengthen retirement security for more of America’s workers and retirees.

“With Peak 65 upon us, more Americans than ever before are reaching retirement age, underscoring the urgent need for holistic financial planning to ensure they do not outlive their savings,” said Wayne Chopus, President and CEO of IRI. “This demographic shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity—reinforcing the importance of expanding access to retirement plans and ensuring reliable income solutions for retirees. It also means an ambitious agenda for IRI as we work to build support in Congress to meet the evolving needs of millions of workers and retirees.”

IRI’s 2025 Blueprint includes recommendations for Congress to:

• Maintain tax-deferred treatment of retirement savings as a necessary tool for workers to plan for and achieve a financially secure retirement.
• End the disparity in treatment under current securities law for 403(b) retirement plan participants to allow them access to more cost-efficient investment options that other retirement plan participants have.
• Eliminate a regulatory barrier that effectively prohibits the use of protected, guaranteed lifetime income solutions with delayed liquidity features, in a retirement plan’s qualified default investment alternative.
• Establish a “qualified payout option” (Q-PON) to require employers who have at least ten employees and have provided a plan for at least three years to offer plan participants a distribution option consisting of a combination of lifetime income and payout solutions from which they can select from at retirement.
• Require most businesses to offer employees access to a workplace retirement plan.
• Allow employers to offer the option to employees to re-enroll into a workplace retirement plan every three years if those employees initially opted out of a plan. Employees could choose to opt-out.
• Direct the SEC to write a rule permitting the electronic delivery of shareholder reports for all registered investment companies.
• Establish a safe harbor for small businesses selecting annuity contracts.
• Allow for a diverse slate of indexed and variable annuity contracts with guaranteed benefits to be eligible to be treated as qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLACs).
• Establish a default distribution option for defined contribution participants by deeming that an employer satisfies fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) so long as participants are notified of the default annuitization option and can opt out at the time of distribution.

“IRI remains steadfast in its mission to champion retirement security for America’s workers and retirees,” Chopus said. “As the need for comprehensive retirement solutions grows, we will continue to engage with Congress and policymakers to advance legislation that enhances financial security and expands access to innovative retirement income strategies.”

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Contact: Dan Zielinski