QLAC Rules and Uses: EDU #2547

If you would prefer to miss Jim's update on his broken-down truck and recent travels you can skip ahead to (12:45).

Chris’s Summary
Jim and I walk through QLAC rules and explain how qualified longevity annuity contracts fit into our Secure Retirement Income Process™ for people who want reliable income later in life. We look at how the Treasury Department designed QLACs after the 2008 market correction, how they work inside IRAs and employer plans, why mortality credits matter, and what Secure 2.0 changed for RMDs.

Jim’s “Pithy” Summary
Chris can’t hide his reaction when QLACs come up and one listener wondering why brings about today's conversation. A QLAC is simply a very specific deferred income annuity the Treasury Department carved out after the 2008 market mess—its purpose was to let people secure future lifetime income inside IRAs and employer plans without RMD rules getting in the way.

I make the case that none of this is about chasing returns. It’s about recognizing that longevity insurance is a different tool entirely, one built around mortality credits and the power of deferring income to a later phase of life. We talk through how those credits work, how payout structures change when you share them or hold more back for beneficiaries, and why people get whipsawed by the industry: asset managers who never want assets to leave their books, and commission-driven annuity salespeople who try to turn everything into a product pitch.

A listener’s email raises a real-world concern—how to make sure the later years' Minimum Dignity Floor™ is supported when a portfolio has had its ups and downs. QLACs come into the discussion as one answer to that problem, and I lay out who this kind of deferred lifetime income tends to help and the situations where people might consider using it inside their IRA.