Annuities can be an important part of Americans’ retirement portfolios and NAIFA’s advocacy work in recent years has helped ensure that they are more widely available to American workers and more flexible for annuity customers. With traditional pensions going the way of the dinosaur, annuities are often the only retirement planning products that guarantee income for the life of the beneficiary.

Among the retirement reforms in the SECURE Act, which NAIFA strongly advocated in favor of, are provisions making it easier for employers to include annuity options in workplace retirement plans. The law also simplifies the formerly difficult process of transferring lifetime income products within a retirement plan to a new plan when an employee changes employers. Formerly, such transfers often resulted in significant fees or penalties.

NAIFA was outgoing in our support for the SECURE Act – and the follow-up SECURE 2.0 legislation – and our grassroots work made a strong impression. In fact, Congress passed the final version of the SECURE Act just days after NAIFA members met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill as part of NAIFA’s National Leadership Conference. Their top ask in those meetings was the passage of the SECURE Act.

NAIFA chapters, along with our partners at ACLI, have been highly instrumental in encouraging the use of annuities in retirement planning by promoting the NAIC model regulation for annuity transactions. The model, which has been adopted by 38 states, enhances consumer protections, requires advisors to work in the best interests of annuity consumers, and preserves the ability of agents and advisors to serve Main Street American annuity customers.

NAIFA continues to promote June as National Annuity Awareness Month to ensure financial planners and their clients are fully aware of the value annuities can bring to a holistic retirement plan.

NAIFA’s advocacy efforts are making a real impact in Washington, D.C., and in every state capital. Learn more by logging in to NAIFA’s Member Portal and clicking “Advocate.” If you are not a NAIFA member, what are you waiting for? You can amplify our advocacy voice on behalf of your business, clients, and community. Join today.