3 pages. Excerpt: The tax incentive for annuities in H.R. 2748 currently excludes qualified defined benefit (DB) plans. We strongly urge you to treat qualified defined benefit plans no less favorably than other sources of retirement income. With so many people reaching retirement age but having to postpone retirement due to declining account balances, our public policies should encourage the expansion of the defined benefit system, rather than create another reason for employers to end their defined benefit plans in favor of defined contribution plans. As lump sums are currently available in many DB plans, an incentive to select the annuity option in all defined benefit plans is good public policy ? whether it encourages expansion of defined benefit plans, discourages further cutbacks in DB benefits, or gives participants more of a reason to elect the annuity option over the lump sum option. We believe this incentive should be available to all annuities provided from defined benefit plans, whether or not they are backed by the PBGC or an annuity contractfrom a private insurance company.  MORE >>