When Congress included an annuity selection safe harbor in the SECURE Act, it intended to pave the way for plan fiduciaries to include retirement income solutions in defined contribution plans. The runway to mass availability of those solutions has been longer than some would like; the supply of solutions has certainly lagged behind their increasing need.
However, after a few years of accelerating product development and launches, a number of recent developments are paving a path that will make it easier—and more productive—for advisors to explore and implement available solutions.
SECURE Act Reminder
Any retirement income developments should be viewed against the backdrop of the SECURE Act’s safe harbor, which provides that fiduciaries will be deemed to have satisfied their duty of prudence with respect to their selection of an insurer for a guaranteed income contract. The safe harbor sets a list of specific—and relatively easy to satisfy—requirements. It also includes language confirming that the safe harbor does not require a fiduciary to choose the lowest-cost option and instead permits consideration of the contract’s value. Even without the additional developments discussed below, any retirement plan advisory firm should start with—and find comfort in—the SECURE Act safe harbor.
Executive Order
In August 2025, President Donald Trump issued his “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors” executive order. The order broadly defined alternative assets to include a number of asset categories, including “lifetime income investment strategies.” It instructed the Department of Labor to issue guidance—including a potential safe harbor—that would confirm fiduciaries’ responsibilities when deciding whether to make available to plan participants an asset allocation fund that includes alternative assets.
DOL Advisory Opinion
In September 2025, the DOL issued an advisory opinion concluding that a particular lifetime income solution program would be eligible for qualified default investment alternative treatment. The DOL emphasized that the QDIA regulation’s preamble included language confirming its intent that QDIAs include products and portfolios offered through variable annuity and similar contracts, as well as through common and collective trust funds or other pooled investment funds. It also referenced and applied the SECURE Act safe harbor.
DOL Proposed Rule
On March 31, the DOL issued a proposed regulation that is much more expansive than the executive order’s scope. Although the regulation’s proposed status calls for patience until the DOL issues a final regulation, the proposal and preamble are particularly noteworthy because they: (i) reiterates the executive order’s broad support for lifetime income strategies and the advisory opinion’s specific support for those strategies as a plan’s QDIA; and (ii) blesses an example of a plan fiduciary including two otherwise-identical asset allocation funds in the plan’s lineup, where the two funds differ only because one includes a lifetime income feature (and corresponding extra cost).
Additional Market Developments
As Congress and the Department of Labor have provided explicit support for retirement income, industry service providers and solutions manufacturers have developed additional resources and options to aid advisors and other plan fiduciaries. For example, Empower has been a market leader in offering innovative ways for participants to receive access to a managed account service that includes a retirement income component. Also, Nestimate, an independent company whose website leads with the goal of making “it easy to implement retirement income solutions in your defined contribution plan,” has launched a target date fund evaluation tool that will help advisors to evaluate TDFs, both with and without retirement income components.
Traveling the Path
Industry experts vary when asked, “For retirement income in defined contribution plans, what inning are we in?” Whatever those specific answers may be, the various developments addressed above indicate that we may be starting the middle innings. Plan participants need advisors and plan sponsors to shift their focus to include not only accumulation, but also retirement income or “decumulation.” Congress laid the foundation with the SECURE Act safe harbor, and the DOL is working to pave the path for advisors to do so.
