PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 31

PARTICIPANTS SPECIAL ISSUE | EDUCATION
adviser need not be on-site, and it is doing
additional meetings on topics such as
pre-retirement planning. " We can have
a team of certified financial planners in
California, and they can work with participants
in Florida, " he says.
Mayflower Advisors has seen widespread
participant interest in virtual oneon-ones,
Dimitriou says. " That's almost
exclusively about the added convenience
for participants, and the ability it gives
them to involve their family members
in a meeting, because they're at home. "
Mayflower can spread out virtual meetings
over several days, instead of one
day on-site, and the more flexible timing
makes it more convenient for participants.
* The playing field gets leveled.
In-person group meetings work best for
extroverts. " Humans are interesting.
You can walk into a meeting room to
do an in-person group presentation and
within two minutes know who is going
to ask questions, " observes Nathan
Voris, director, investments, insights and
consultant services at Schwab Retirement
Plan Services in Richfield, Ohio. " Virtual
meetings allow introverts and extroverts
to be on the same playing field, because
there's a power of anonymity. "
Meeting virtually allows for options
other than someone having to raise his
hand and participate in front of the group.
" In some cases, people can ask questions
by typing them in when they register, "
Voris says. " Or we can send a reminder
a couple of days prior to a meeting and
say, 'If you have any questions, please
send them to us beforehand.' In other
scenarios, they can type in their question
in real time, during the meeting. "
* A " question moderator " is helpful.
Virtual group meetings where the
presenter tells attendees to hold all of
their questions until the meeting's end
tend to alienate the audience, Dimitriou
has seen. But unlimited questions can
take significant time. He says it helps to
have a " question moderator, " someone
not the presenter-perhaps a human
resources staffer-manning the chat box
and Q&A features that most presentation
platforms provide.
" That way, when questions come up
that are a little too tangential to what the
presenter is discussing, the moderator
can respond to them, " he says. " And if
someone asks a question that's more
personal and shouldn't be addressed in
front of the group, that can be addressed
by the moderator, and the response can
be kept private. But if the question is
appropriate for the group, the presenter
can raise it during the presentation and
answer it. "
* Brevity is key. " You can't take a
35-minute presentation you would deliver
live, put it online as is and call it a virtual
meeting, " Voris says. " If you do that, it's
often too long, and it's not interactive
enough. If someone is watching at home
and consuming it on-demand, eight to
12 minutes might be a good length. It's
important to be smart about creating
consumable content. "
* On-demand usage grows quickly.
Forty-two percent of all participants in
Schwab's 2021 education sessions chose
to view virtual material on-demand rather
than attend a live online session. This is up
from 33% who chose on-demand in 2020,
and 16% in 2019. " It makes sense, " Voris
says as to people increasingly preferring
on-demand. " On-demand is the perfect
solution for crazy times and for people's
work/life balance: It's available 365 days a
year, anytime you need it. "
A Hybrid World
The virtual meeting is here to stay, as is the
in-person meeting, Dimitriou predicts.
" The trend now is for employers to have a
hybrid workforce that [clocks] three to four
days a week at the office, and one to two
days a week at home, " he says. " The fact
there's a hybrid workforce will compel us
to take a hybrid approach to meetings, as
that's the most efficient way to do it. "
Petrone, too, foresees a hybrid world
of virtual and in-person participant meetings.
The convenience of " virtual " works
better in some cases. " Many financial
" Bringing
together
employees for
annual group
retirement
meetings used
to happen a lot,
and I don't think
there'll be so
many of those
going forward. "
decisions are being made with the employee's
spouse involved. To have that person
be a party to the conversation, it could be
much easier to have a virtual meeting
than a meeting on-site and during the
workday, " he says,
In other specific cases, Petrone says,
in-person meetings likely will resume. For
example, a client company that has recently
made a big acquisition probably will still
want SageView to come on-site and explain
the retirement benefit to new workers.
" Bringing together employees for annual
group retirement meetings used to happen
a lot, and I don't think there'll be so many
of those going forward, " he says.
Voris also anticipates fewer on-site,
general retirement plan meetings and
more virtual, on-demand presentations on
targeted topics. " I think that participants,
in many ways, over the past five years have
been ahead of the sponsors on this, " he
says. " If you think about how individuals
consume content outside of their 401(k), it
has evolved to be on-demand and virtual.
But many plan sponsors have held onto
their 'education days.' Now, in the past
couple of years, we've been able to show
sponsors that a blend of on-demand,
virtual and in-person works. " -Judy Ward
PLANSPONSOR.COM February - March 2022 31
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PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022

INSIGHTS
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
RULES & REGULATIONS
UPFRONT
Let’s Talk
Let It Grow
When Workers Retire in Stages
Virtual Lessons Learned
Managed Accounts, Today
How ‘Well’ Is ‘Well’ Enough?
Differentiation by Income
FIDUCIARY FORUM
INSIDE ANGLE
PLAN PROFILE
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Cover1
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Cover2
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 1
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - INSIGHTS
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 3
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 5
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - RULES & REGULATIONS
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 7
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 8
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 9
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - UPFRONT
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 11
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 12
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 13
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 14
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 15
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 16
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 17
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Let’s Talk
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 19
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 20
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 21
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Let It Grow
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 23
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 24
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 25
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - When Workers Retire in Stages
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 27
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 28
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 29
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Virtual Lessons Learned
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 31
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Managed Accounts, Today
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 33
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - How ‘Well’ Is ‘Well’ Enough?
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 35
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Differentiation by Income
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - 37
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - FIDUCIARY FORUM
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - INSIDE ANGLE
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - PLAN PROFILE
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Cover3
PLANSPONSOR - February - March 2022 - Cover4
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