A survey by Cerulli Associates found that plan sponsors are giving more thought to in-plan retirement income options but they aren't solely thinking about annuities. The consulting firm said it saw a "reinvigoration" of the subject of retirement income and that plan sponsors are taking the initiative to ask about how retirement income solutions are structured and implemented.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is proposing legislation that would prohibit lawmakers from owning individual stocks and would ban lobbyists from contributing to members of Congress and congressional candidates. The bill also would impose a lifetime lobbying ban on members of Congress, agency heads and former presidents.

Advisors can best serve the individual retirement account market by segmenting clients by age, building relationships with young investors, becoming knowledgeable about Social Security and health care expenses, and creating drawdown strategies for assets, say analysts from Cerulli Associates in two recent retirement reports. The IRA sector is the largest and fastest-growing segment of the overall retirement market, according to Cerulli.

Plan sponsors are increasingly deciding to offer in-plan annuities to participants, but the progress is slow. A recent report from the consulting firm Callan found 8.9% of plan sponsors polled offered an in-plan annuity in 2017, up from 4.6% in 2015.

Several issues need to be clarified by the Labor Department before sponsors of defined-benefit plans are comfortable offering in-plan annuity options, according to a report from Cerulli Associates. A notice dealing with the employer's duties published this year only partially dealt with the annuity purchase safe harbor requirements, the report said. Without in-plan income products, DB plans won't be suitable vehicles for providing retirement income, said Bing Waldert, managing director of US research at Cerulli.