An executive order signed by President Obama within weeks of taking office went live yesterday.

This executive order encourages all federal agencies to require project labor agreements ("PLA") for all construction projects over $25 million.

A fairly prominent recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the recent attention paid to immediate annuities in the wake of the Obama Administration's "middle class task force" initiatives.

There are some very good scenarios describing the payouts and comparative merits of immediate annuities.

Much has been written and discussed over the past several weeks since the Obama Administration suggested that annuities may play a key role in the financial and retirement planning lives of millions of Americans.

This discussion topic should serve as a thread for thoughts and comments on this somewhat controversial issue.

Andy Sieg is the head of Retirement Planning and Services for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Sieg provides his views on retirement planning reform in a recent op-ed piece in Investment Advisor.

Among Sieg's points are:

Both the Obama Administration and Congress are considering ways in which Americans can become more aware of the need for guaranteed lifetime income.

Much has been written over the past couple of weeks about the Obama Administration's support of annuities.

The New York Times ran a story about the "unloved annuity getting a hug from Obama."

Why does the Obama Administration seem to obsessed with offering annuities through employer-sponsored retirement plans?

The Obama Administration continues to make annuities and other potential sources a guaranteed income a policy priority.

As described in a recent Bloomberg article, much of the concern seems to be related to the retirement plan damage caused by the financial crisis.

While recently recovered, average 401k balances took a major hit in 2008 and early 2009.

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401ks and IRAs into annuities.

Members of Congress and officials from the Departments of Treasury and Labor are working on options that would provide sources of guaranteed lifetime income to participants in 401k and other pension plans.

At a high level, it is clear that the Obama Administration wants to create structures and incentives for: