The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries is hoping the government will give it more time to respond to proposed rules on lifetime income illustrations in employee benefit statements.
The deadline is now July 8.
Participants in defined benefit pension plans have a pretty good idea what their benefit will be when they retire. Not so for participants in defined contribution plans, whose balances suffered in the 2008 financial meltdown. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration proposed rules are intended to show participants how much lifetime income their balances will provide as an annuity.
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"ASPPA is very supportive of the idea of making participants aware of what they need to save for retirement," said Craig Hoffman, ASPPA's general counsel and director of regulatory affairs. "And we think it's a good idea to go through this process of seeking as much input as possible. But we've requested until Aug. 7 to submit responses to what we recognize is an extremely complex process."
According to a ASPPA letter written to regulators, the DOL notice includes approximately 27 technical and complex questions, many of which are time-consuming to answer. "The illustrations under consideration will require software reprogramming and modeling changes," the letter said. "Consequently, the information requested by the department requires input from information technology professionals and other experts, including internal and potentially outside experts. A comment period of 60 days simply does not present sufficient time to complete such an analysis."
In addition, the letter's signatories still need time to iron out their inevitable differences over how to approach requirements.
In addition to ASPPA, those signatories include the American Bankers Association, the Small Business Council, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and others.
"Financial professionals who are knowledgeable about these matters can reasonably disagree about them," the letter explained. "Consequently, the views and positions among the undersigned organizations may ultimately vary as well. However, we all agree that additional time is needed in order to be able to provide well thought-out and useful responses to the Department."
"This process is still a long way from home," said Hoffman.
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