New Product to Provide Public Sector Employees Ongoing Income in Retirement

WASHINGTON, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- ICMA-RC is pleased to announce a new retirement income solution available to state and local government employees. ICMA-RC is entering into agreement with Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU), a market leader in lifetime-income solutions, to make available the new VantageTrust Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund.

The VantageTrust Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund ("the IncomeAdvantage Fund") is a solution intended to provide guaranteed lifetime retirement income to public sector employees. The IncomeAdvantage Fund invests in a separate account under a group variable annuity issued by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company and is designed primarily for participants who are within 10 to 15 years of retirement.

The IncomeAdvantage Fund will be managed by ICMA-RC and made available to participants through their employer-sponsored retirement plans. Participants will have the option to "lock-in" their benefits and begin receiving a guaranteed lifetime annual withdrawal amount from the Fund at any time after their 55th birthday. After a participant "locks-in," the guaranteed lifetime annual withdrawal amount will never decrease as a result of market downturns, but the amount can increase if the markets perform well.

"This Fund will be an important option to our participants as they move toward retirement, a changing economy, and increasing life expectancies," said Joan McCallen, President & CEO of ICMA-RC.  "With this addition, plan participants will be able to not only work toward building retirement savings but also turn those assets into income for life. Ensuring that public sector employers and their employees have the retirement income solutions they need to provide a dependable income stream throughout retirement is a priority."

"Our goal was to identify a sound solution for public sector employees as they start to think about retirement income," McCallen said. "We are pleased to be partnering with Prudential to make the IncomeAdvantage Fund available to public sector employees."

The IncomeAdvantage Fund complements the array of retirement product and service solutions ICMA-RC already makes available to public employees. It features no withdrawal penalties, full access to its market value, and a straightforward fee structure, in addition to providing guaranteed lifetime income (subject to certain limitations) through Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company.  Neither Prudential Retirement nor ICMA-RC provide any guarantee of the investment performance or return on contributions to the separate account. Guaranteed withdrawals are supported by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company's general account and are contingent on its claims paying ability.

"By offering the Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund to its public sector participants, ICMA-RC has clearly recognized the need to provide an institutionally priced solution that can help those participants achieve retirement security through lifelong income and full flexibility," said Christine Marcks, President of Prudential Retirement. "We look forward to helping ICMA-RC introduce this additional product to their public sector clients."

The IncomeAdvantage Fund is expected to be made available to the majority of ICMA-RC's 8,000 plan sponsors by the fall of 2010.

About ICMA-RC

ICMA-RC is an independent not-for-profit corporation focused on providing retirement plans and related services for more than 900,000 public employees in more than 8,000 retirement plans.  Its mission is to help build retirement security for public employees by providing investment tools, financial education, and other retirement-related services. The corporation also works to ease the administrative responsibility of local governments that offer these benefits to their employees. For more information, visit www.icmarc.org.

About the VantageTrust Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund

The VantageTrust Retirement IncomeAdvantage Fund is offered through VantageTrust, a group trust sponsored by the VantageTrust Company, a New Hampshire non-depository banking institution. VantageTrust provides for the commingled investment of the assets of deferred compensation and qualified retirement plans sponsored by state and local governments.  ICMA-RC provides investment advisory and other services to VantageTrust Company regarding VantageTrust investment options.

About Prudential Retirement

Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private and non-profit organizations. Services include state-of-the-art record keeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee investment education and communications, and trustee services. With over 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of nearly 3.2 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $183.9 billion in retirement account values as of March 31, 2010.

About Prudential Financial, Inc.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $693 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2010, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management and real estate services. In the U.S., Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com.

Prudential IncomeFlex Funds are separate accounts available under group variable annuity contracts issued by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company (Prudential) (CA COA #08003.), Hartford, CT. Neither Prudential nor ICMA-RC guarantees the investment performance or return on contributions to the Prudential's separate account.  Guaranteed withdrawals are supported by Prudential's guarantee of certain withdrawals is supported by Prudential's general account and are contingent on its claims paying ability.

Keep in mind that application of asset allocation and diversification concepts does not ensure safety of principal and interest, it should also be noted that diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market. It is possible to lose money by investing in securities.

SOURCE ICMA-RC