The DOL’s proposed regulation on selecting investments, including alternative assets, 2026-06178.pdf, identifies six factors that should be considered in the process of selecting any investments for participant-directed plans, such as 401(k) plans and private sector 403(b) plans. The six factors are: Performance, Fees, Liquidity, Valuation, Performance Benchmark, and Complexity. The proposal describes each of those factors and provides 20 examples of their application. In my post Alternative Assets (9) I discussed the second factor, Fees. My last two articles, Alternative Assets (10) and Alternative Assets (11), examined the first two Fees examples in the proposal. This article looks at the third example of the application of the Fees factor. The third example is: (3) Example. Fees; Lifetime income— (i) Facts. A plan sponsor makes a plan design decision to add a lifetime income benefit to its existing participant-directed individual account plan. The named fiduciary of the plan selects an asset allocation fund offered through a variable annuity contract to implement the plan sponsor’s decision. The new designated investment alternative is similar in all material respects—risk, return, liquidity, and allocation profile—to another designated investment alternative already on the plan investment menu except that the designated investment alternative already on the plan