Drinker Biddle & Reath has created the Retirement Income Team to help our clients address what some are calling the post-retirement income crisis: the risk that today’s retirees will run out of money.

The Drinker Biddle Retirement Income Team brings together an array of experienced lawyers with diverse talents in multiple disciplines: employee benefits, investment management, securities, insurance, income taxation and government relations. Our team enables financial services companies to look to one source for help in resolving intersecting and sometimes conflicting legal issues that impact the design and sales of retirement income products. We also help employers in deciding whether and how to offer retirement income solutions to their employees.

The post-retirement income crisis is very real. Historically, employees could rely on guaranteed, lifetime income from their employers’ defined benefit pension plans to supplement Social Security. But those guarantees have largely disappeared in the transition to deferral-based defined contribution plans, such as 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) and governmental 401(a) plans, under which employees are largely on their own in deciding how much to save, how to invest their funds and what to do with the funds when they retire. Even the public sector is facing pressure to eliminate or reduce defined benefit retirement systems in favor of defined contribution arrangements.

This leaves most workers to face the serious possibility that their retirement savings may not be adequate. Financial services firms, government regulators and plan sponsors are seeking ways to create and support sustainable lifetime retirement income solutions. In so doing, however, they face a maze of legal hurdles and practical challenges that cut across a multitude of federal and state laws and regulations. Our team can help navigate this maze.

For more information, please visit the Retirement Income Team pages on Drinker Biddle’s website by clicking here.