Required annuitization of 401(k) accounts?

Does the U. S. of A. want to take away your 401(k)?

I’ve had a couple of phone conversations lately about required annuitization of 401(k) accounts. (“Annuitization” means converting a lump sum into a monthly income stream.) It’s something the Department of Labor (DOL) is looking at (wasting a lot of taxpayer money, of course). I wouldn’t take it too seriously, but it’s worth a quick discussion, and some of the public comments are definitely worth reading!

The DOL made a request for information earlier this year about using annuities to pay out retirement benefits. They recognize, correctly, that we do have a retirement problem in this country. Unfortunately, they think it can be solved by changing the way monies are paid out, the theory being that a lifetime income can’t be pissed away like a lump sum can. Unfortunately, the problem is that people don’t have enough money in their accounts! If you take a $50,000 account and pay it at $163.27 a month, that doesn’t really solve the problem. But, they needed something to do so they had the GAO do a study, and the GAO considered a few alternatives, and one of the more radical alternatives was not only to require annuitization, but to (essentially) confiscate everyone’s 401(k) accounts and force them to buy US Government securities with a guaranteed rate until they actually retired. Well, this got someone’s attention, Glenn Beck maybe, it went viral, and when the DOL asked for comments, they got ’em! Check out this page – scroll down to Request For Information Comments, and click on a few…#s 10 and 184 are good, but really, just about all of them carry a venom that belies a profound hatred of our government that is just waiting to come out. Enjoy! (But don’t worry about this becoming a reality.)