Two of the most daunting risks faced by the majority of retirees are:

Some of the world's largest asset managers are working on development of fund offerings that include features such as income guarantees or principal protection.

In contrast to standalone living benefits, the new products would actually be embedded into a mutual fund offering.

NAPFA is the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.

NAPFA membership consists of financial advisors who provide comprehensive financial planning services on a fee-only basis.

NAPFA member David B. Jacobs serves as a representative for this interview.  David serves on the committee for both the School of Retirement and the School of Risk Management for NAPFA University.

Annuity Digest: Please tell us a bit about NAPFA and how the organization serves financial services consumers.

Moshe Milevsky is one of the leading figures in the annuity industry.

He is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto.  Professor Milevsky always seems generous with his time and ideas--his writing and research reach wide popular, academic and industry audiences.

This is a continuation of a comment/question that started here:

http://www.annuitydigest.com/blog/tom/standalone-living-benefits-provide-guaranteed-income-without-annuities#comment-105

The short answer is that standalone living benefits most likely would not be available (at the moment) through a plain-vanilla mutual fund.

The standalone living benefit (“SALB”) is a relatively new and innovative product in the retirement income arena.

A SALB is basically the same thing as the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) that accompanies many variable annuities.  The GLWB feature allows the contract holder to withdraw a fixed percentage of the total annuity premiums each year regardless of market performance.