Prudential Retirement, a business of Prudential Financial, has signed an agreement with ICMA Retirement Corporation (ICMA-RC) through which ICMA-RC will make a guaranteed retirement-income solution available to around 8,000 retirement plans, covering about 900,000 public-sector employees.
Under the agreement, ICMA-RC will introduce the ‘VantageTrust Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund’, which will be managed by ICMA-RC and will feature Prudential IncomeFlex, an in-plan guaranteed retirement-income product.
ICMA-RC will introduce this new in-plan option to its existing clients. The fund will be a balanced portfolio investing in low-cost stock index and bond funds and is designed primarily for participants within 10 to 15 years of retirement. The agreement with Prudential provides for guaranteed lifetime income. Guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing company.
Christine Marcks, president of Prudential Retirement, said: “By investing in this fund, participants in an ICMA-RC retirement plan can ultimately benefit from a level of lifetime income that cannot be outlived, will not decrease if the stock market declines, and may, in fact, increase if the market performs well.”