Few people would consider the field of retirement planning a hotbed of innovation. And yet in the last few years, some top financial services companies have been in the equivalent of a space race, launching a swath of competing investment products designed to help retirees manage their income.
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What’s going on?
Essentially, after decades of helping people stay laser focused on the accumulation of wealth, industry leaders (and retirees) have been grappling with the next challenge: How do you turn decades of hard-won savings into a steady stream of income for the rest of your life?
“With millions of Americans reaching retirement age each year, and defined contribution plans like 401(k)s now the primary retirement vehicle, there’s a growing need for solutions that simplify income planning,” says David Stinnett, head of strategic retirement consulting at Vanguard. “This is especially important now to help manage longevity risk.”
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Although annuities have seen record inflows in the last few years, financial services companies have recognized that these complex, sometimes expensive, insurance products aren’t for everyone. But everyone needs an income strategy.
In response, companies like AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, TIAA — and Vanguard, as of December — have developed hybrid funds that combine the hands-off portfolio management (and growth potential) of target date funds with the lifetime income feature of annuities.
How they work.
The design, features and cost of these hybrid funds vary by provider. And each company, of course, uses a different moniker for its own product: AllianceBernstein has the Lifetime Income Strategy; BlackRock offers the LifePath Paycheck series; TIAA launched RetirePlus in 2014 for its clients; and Nuveen launched the Lifecycle Income series in 2023.
Vanguard has also collaborated with TIAA to develop its Target Retirement Lifetime Income series, which includes the TIAA Secure Income Account as the annuity option; this series will launch later in 2026.
The concept across the board tends to be similar. With so many retirement savers already invested in target-date funds, which collectively held about $5.2 trillion at the end of 2025, according to Sway Research, the idea was to create a “sleeve” within existing the existing target fund structure that could provide an annuity-like income option once an account holder reached a certain age.
“When we first talked about the idea for this product, we talked about not outliving your money,” says Nick Nefouse, global head of retirement solutions at BlackRock, which launched the LifePath Paycheck in 2024. “In reality, we’re creating a sense of certainty. You retire, you annuitize part of your savings, and you get a paycheck for the rest of your life.”
Similar structure, different details.
Again, the particulars of these funds can vary, but the overall design is similar: Investors in retirement plans that offer these funds can invest in a hybrid fund as they would, say, an ordinary mutual fund or target date fund.
The difference being that, at a certain age, a portion of investor assets are automatically allocated to the “lifetime income” asset class. With the BlackRock Life-Path Paycheck and the Vanguard Retirement Lifetime Income series it’s 55, for example.
With the BlackRock fund, the lifetime allocation is approximately 30% of assets by age 65, says Nefouse. In the case of Vanguard’s product, the final allocation to the annuity side is up to 25% of total assets. The allocation to the annuity portion uses a fixed-income strategy with a risk profile similar to bonds.
The income feature acts like an immediate-pay fixed-income annuity, with payments starting when the annuity option is exercised (some fund investors can choose to annuitize or not).
Again, the terms, cost and details will vary; consulting a professional is wise.
Solving the retirement income puzzle.
To give these hybrid strategies some historical context: There was a time when workers could rely on pensions to cover their lifetime income needs in the years after retirement.
Today, only about 15% of private sector workers enjoy the security of a pension, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and most workers rely on defined contribution plans, like tax-deferred 401(k) or 403(b) retirement accounts.
While these accounts, as well as traditional IRAs, require retirees to take minimum distributions (RMDs) starting at age 73, “an issue with RMDs is that they leave a gap of, say, 10 years where retirees don’t have a clear income withdrawal strategy,” notes Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Over time, some plan providers added flexibility to existing workplace plans, allowing retirees to keep assets in their existing accounts. Some provided flexible withdrawal options, Copeland explains. This enabled retirees, prior to the RMD age, to take periodic withdrawals at their own discretion.
Then, in 2019, the SECURE Act provided a fiduciary safe harbor for plans wishing to include annuity products. This eliminated certain legal risks and onerous due diligence requirements when incorporating annuities. This rule change in turn paved the way for the widespread innovation of hybrid target date annuity funds.
“Assets in these hybrid funds have risen from about $9 billion in 2019 to over $100 billion in mid-2025.”
The appeal of guaranteed income.
The promise of guaranteed lifetime income seems to be meeting a concern shared by retirees and pre-retirees alike, especially in light of today’s longevity: the desire to ensure their savings will last as long as they do.
Already, assets in these hybrid funds have risen from about $9 billion in 2019 to over $100 billion in mid-2025, according to Sway. TIAA and Nuveen’s target-date lifetime income strategies alone surpassed $75 billion in assets, as of February 2026.
And demand is likely to continue, given that 93% of 401(k) investors say that guaranteed income options are important, according to a survey by the TIAA Institute.
While hybrid target date annuity funds are still a small portion of the overall retirement plan market, the problem they help solve is significant. For many retirees, these funds could ease the burden of income planning and add to their peace of mind.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Retirement Report, our popular monthly periodical that covers key concerns of affluent older Americans who are retired or preparing for retirement. Subscribe for retirement advice that’s right on the money.
