The quest for retirement income
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Herb Hopwood, Certified Financial Planner and president of Hopwood Financial Services in Great Falls, Va., says he's not sure a bundled product would be the answer.

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"We're all looking for this Holy Grail, the perfect investment, but the reality is it needs to be a solution based on someone's particular situation. It's kind of like a mutual fund. Some fund families are good at some things and not good at other things. Is one company going to have the best policy for long-term care and life insurance and disability? I just don't know.  

"It would take more legwork, but if you shopped around for the best policies at the most reasonable prices would you be better off than having a bundled product?"

Healthy companies freeze defined benefit pensions, 2004-06

Company U.S. employees Participants affected Type of freeze 2006       Coca-Cola Bottling Co. * 6,100 4,500 Total Nissan NA Inc. 15,200 NA New employees IBM Corp. 125,000 117,000 Total ALCOA 48,000 NA New employees 2005       Verizon Communications 240,000 50,000 Partial Sprint Nextel Corp. 82,900 39,000 Partial Sears Holdings Corp. 238,200 113,000 Total Milliken and Co. 10,200 9,300 Total Lockheed Martin Corp. 118,800 NA New employees Hewlett-Packard Co. 71,000 32,200 Partial Ferro Corp. 2,500 1,000 Total Russell Corp. 8,800 5,700 Total 2004       Circuit City Stores 42,400 19,000 Total Motorola Inc. 30,600 NA New employees Hospira Inc. 9,800 8,250 Total NCR Corp. 11,400 9,200 Partial Aon Corp. 21,000 NA New employees

Source: Table compiled by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
* This is different from the Coca-Cola Co.

Financial firms join in
T. Rowe Price, the investment management firm, is one of several mutual fund companies trying to find an appropriate way to convert retirement savings into a reliable income stream.

"There are two primary paths being explored," says Jerome Clark, portfolio manager for T. Rowe Price retirement funds. "One is through a guarantee typically tied to an insurance product. That doesn't mean that it doesn't involve a money manager who's partnered or involved in some fashion with the insurance product. The other way some are exploring is a targeted income stream through various investment products. When you go down that route you're typically not providing a guarantee but you're targeting an income stream."

Barry Vosler, a CFP at Linsco/Private Ledger in DeWitt, Iowa, doesn't see a lack of innovative new products and he's not sure that the insurance industry or the mutual fund companies can provide one-stop solutions.