Designed for ERISA plans: Merrill Lynch teams with MetLife to offer annuity product.(News)

Pensions & Investments, July, 2004 by Feinberg, Phyllis

Byline: Phyllis Feinberg NEW YORK - The Retirement Group at Merrill Lynch has joined with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. to bring 401(k) plan participants a fixed, deferred group annuity investment option called Personal Pension Builder. While New York-based MetLife offers the product to employers on a voluntary after-tax basis, Merrill Lynch, also of New York, designed its product so that it is ERISA-eligible and can be funded with pre-tax dollars put into a 401(k) account.

"The biggest challenge we had was designing a product that would fit within ERISA,'' said Ron Albahary, chief investment officer of Merrill's Retirement Group. "Employers can include it (Personal Pension Builder) as another investment option in a 401(k) plan,'' he added. "We've...

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