PLANSPONSOR - May/June 2024 - 15

rewards at The Jackson Laboratory.
" As much as they say, 'Give me guidance
here; give me guidance there,' they
also don't want to go to 10 different places
for help, " Soremekun said. To that end,
this plan sponsor is working with its plan
recordkeeper to develop tools that combine
information on an employee's bank
account, student
loan and mortgage in
one place while providing a personal coach
who can explain how these interrelate and
advise on how to allocate savings.
Kelli Send, co-founder and senior vice
president of financial wellness services
at Francis LLC, agreed that people need
someone to talk to, either face-to-face or
virtually, about their financial standing.
" The SECURE [Setting Every Community
Up for Retirement Enhancement] 2.0
Act [of 2022] is helping employers. We're
thinking about including programs like
the student loan payoff or having employer
contributions be done to Roth, " Send said.
" Those are decisions that people need help
with. " -Natalie Lin
Implementation
And Communication
Investment adviser representative Jenna
Witherbee said, after years of working
with clients' plan participants, she and
her colleagues at 401k Plan Professionals
noticed a pattern of questions.
The firm decided to take the common
issues cited in those questions to build its
own in-house financial wellness program.
" We wanted to create something
that was 'on demand' and in bite-size
pieces that would walk people through
the financial steps, " Witherbee said in
the livestream. " We created an eight-step
financial wellness
series
that
lives on
our website and our YouTube channel. ...
That's a way we can reach more people. "
Creation is just one aspect,
Witherbee says. The next is putting the
resources in front of participants consistently.
That can be in formats including
employer emails,
regularly
scheduled
educational meetings, and via technology
tools such as QR codes.
Kelli Send, co-founder,
senior vice president -
financial wellness services,
Francis LLC
Adelia Soremekun,
senior director, total
rewards, The Jackson
Laboratory
Jay Schmitt,
principal, Strategic
Benefit Advisors
Stress Management
Richard Yezzi Jr., vice president of operations,
JX Enterprises Inc., told the
livestream audience that his company
stresses financial wellness for employees
because " the toll and the stress " of money
troubles seeps into the workplace.
" Getting
engagement
programs and having
on
these
people develop
good habits is key for us, " said the operations
head for the transportation company.
" Making sure we raise awareness that
people have access to the resources and
information they need to relieve those
stresses ... is critical. "
Yezzi said the firm has tried a
" myriad " communication tactics to engage
people with its financial education.
To track the results, Yezzi's team looks
at open rates and usage for its online financial
programs, and at the communication
campaigns themselves.
Honing the Message
Jay Schmitt, a principal in Strategic Benefit
Advisors, helps
sponsors
identify
participants the sponsor wants to reach.
" 'What are we trying to accomplish
here?' " Schmitt said. " You've got workers
who don't look at a computer all day but do
have a phone. It's getting to those details,
and to whom we're trying to reach ... "
Schmitt said, when his firm meets
with a plan administrator, it first identifies
all the resources participants have available,
and brings those together into a package of
materials to target the workforce.
For many people, he said, the call to
action to engage with financial wellness
may be when something bad happens
financially. That is why it is crucial, he said,
for employers to get resources in front of
employees early and often. -Alex Ortolani
PLANSPONSOR Roadmap Speakers
Christine Chiulli, vice
president, financial wellness,
Fidelity Investments
Sharon Kacsits,
director human resources -
North America, COFCO
International
Rebecca Liebman,
CEO and co-founder,
LearnLux
Jake Spiegel,
research associate,
Employee Benefit
Research Institute
Kerry Woods Tapia,
vice president participant
education and engagement,
SageView Advisory Group
Joshua Ulmer,
managing director and
institutional consulting
director, Graystone
Consulting - Morgan Stanley
Jenna Witherbee,
investment adviser
representative, 401k
Plan Professionals
Richard Yezzi Jr., vice
president of operations,
JX Enterprises Inc.
Thank you, Fidelity and LearnLux,
for supporting the event.
and
choose the right program. He noted the
importance of starting with a review of the
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