Retirement Industry 2030

It’s time to build a better model

What will the U.S. retirement industry look like in 2030? All of us who serve the private retirement system care about this question. We care as citizens, not just as businesspeople, that the industry more broadly support all American workers.

The challenge is to align social purpose with business purpose to create a new generation of prudently managed products and services that meet this goal. It’s time to build a better model.

The retirement industry is in the early stages of a massive transfer of duties from employers to service providers even as technology transforms everything. And we have new tools that will accelerate the trend:

 

PEPs (Pooled Employer Plans)

ARPs (Association Retirement Plans)

“Groups of plans”

Retirement income gate-openers

And some existing tools that we can re-imagine:

Trusts, including IRC Section 408(c) IRA trusts, 81-100 group trusts, collective trust funds (CTFs), and collective investment funds (CIFs)

MEPs (Multiple Employer Plans, of which PEPs and ARPs are the newest types)

Ordinary product innovation to mimic the new structures with less risk

The key is to re-evaluate your business model in light of the new toolset and move decisively.