PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2021 - 18

BEST PRACTICES | 2021 PLAN SPONSOR OF THE YEAR WINNERS
Corporate 401(k) <$25mm
The Dime Bank
Honesdale, Pennsylvania
W
hen asked about the success of The Dime
Bank's 401(k) plan, Jill George deflects
much of the praise to its providers. " We have
such a good relationship with both our recordkeeper,
Fidelity Investments, and adviser,
L.R. Webber, " explains George, chief human
resources (HR) officer at the bank's operation
center, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. " We're a
three-legged stool of retirement [planning], and
this has made the plan the one it is today. "
That solid working relationship was
beneficial when George and the providers first
discussed automatic enrollment-and, more
importantly, automatic escalation. " This isn't
just any auto-escalation, " notes Tom Muldoon,
who was an adviser with L.R. Webber at the time
and is now with FNB Wealth Management.
" It's a 'leave no participant behind' escalation
feature, where every year that you're below a
15% deferral rate, your savings rate would be
increased 1%. "
This strategy of defaulting the participants
was repeated when the plan made other
improvements. For one, it moved all enrollees
into a new target-date fund (TDF) when the
committee redesigned the investment menu
with consolidated investment options and zero
revenue share classes. The plan also defaults
participants, when they retire, into an installment
distribution schedule.
The Dime Bank is a Pennsylvania-chartered
commercial bank operating since 1905. The
bank's retirement plan committee is composed
of 10 members: one board member and the
entire C-suite, plus four employees who serve for
four years, receiving exposure to plan meetings
and providing a voice for their colleagues.
" What I like about the committee is that Jill
included frontline employees who have a seat at
the table, " says Steve Canty, director/relationship
management with Fidelity Investments in
Boston. " It's truly a grassroots approach, which
you don't often see-especially in [the bank's]
peer group of plan assets. "
18 PLANSPONSOR.COM June - July 2021
With the employees' retirement readiness
in mind, The Dime Bank's plan pays Fidelity's
administration cost.
George has been managing the 401(k)
since the bank started offering one, in 1990,
and over the last 15 years she has pushed, in
earnest, for education. Beginning 10 years ago,
she requested that Fidelity send an education
specialist to the bank once or twice a year. " I
split up the offerings, " George says. " We'd
have sessions for the younger employees: a
session on budgeting and sessions on saving
for all of the things that people in their 20s
and 30s need to save for. We also held sessions
targeting employees [of ages] 55-plus, for their
approaching retirement. "
The plan's statistics are outstanding in not
only how they compare with those at similarsize
plans, but at similar-size plans within the
bank's peer group and sector, Canty says.
Fidelity gauges employee deferral rates by
way of its income replacement score and has
determined that 60% of the bank's employees
save 15% or more-deferral and employer match
combined, Canty says. This equates to 85 of the
plan's 141 active enrollees today.
To keep participants challenged to save,
Muldoon instituted a system of handing out
" report cards, " George recalls. " You'd get graded
from an 'A' to an 'F,' and you didn't get an A
unless you were deferring 15% or more. You also
didn't get an A in your investment options unless
[they] were age appropriate and diversified. "
Since then, every year, participants receive
their report card at the adviser's annual education
meeting. The adviser follows up with
participants, one-on-one, to discuss their grades.
" People really don't like it when they get a C, D or
F, so they work hard, and they're advised on what
is needed to get their grade up, " George says.
Citing the thoroughness of George's efforts
to engage employees with the plan, Canty says,
" She genuinely cares about her employees'
financial well-being. " -JFH
Finalist
Dotson Iron Castings
Mankato, Minnesota
More on PLANSPONSOR.com/
awards/2021-plan-sponsor-year
Jill George,
Chief Human Resources Officer
" You'd get
graded from
an 'A' to an 'F,'
and you didn't
get an A unless
you were
deferring 15%
or more. You
also didn't get
an A in your
investment
options unless
[they] were age
appropriate
and diversified. "
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PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2021

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