PLANSPONSOR - September/October 2024 - 22

CONFERENCE COVERAGE
private [annuity] market because of their
longer life expectancy. But, in a DB plan,
they can get a better benefit. "
Using a DB plan strategically,
removing some participants via voluntary
early retirements, " in some situations
actually provides a pretty big advantage to
plan sponsors that want to manage their
workflow and their people, " concluded
Paul Moore, senior vice president, workplace
consulting at Fidelity Investments.
-Noah Zuss
" You need to [design plans]
with the understanding that
[participants] won't stay in that
same stage or mindset forever. "
On the Empower dashboard, particEnhanced
Engagement
Efforts
TO
IMPROVE participant engagement
in the retirement plan, it is important to
consider that participants, depending on
their age and life stage, have varying preferences
for how involved they want to be.
In " Enhanced Engagement Efforts, "
Landon Barnes, assistant vice president of
customer experience retirement
income
solutions at Principal Financial Group, said
an effective strategy is to design retirement
programs with three paths: a do-it-yourself
route, where participants select their own
investment vehicles; a do-it-with-me route,
where the sponsor helps in choosing the
best options; and-in what amounts to a
directed route-where participants want
their
investments managed for
them.
Moreover, " You need to [design plans] with
the understanding that [participants] won't
stay in that same stage or mindset forever. "
Peter Kapinos, vice president and head
of workplace and investment marketing at
Empower, presented data from 1 million
Empower-plan participants
plified
that
the
exemsaving/level-of-engagement
connection.
For participants who were
defaulted into a target-date fund and were
unengaged-i.e., rarely accessing the
portal or call center-the saving rate averaged
4.9%. Those defaulted into a TDF
but more engaged saved around 7.3%, and
those with a managed account saved an
average 8.2%.
22 PLANSPONSOR.COM September - October 2024
ipants can link their accounts and view
all of their finances side by side, Kapinos
said, adding that the average saving rate for
those participants is 10.5%. " People who
link accounts save 30% more than people
who haven't taken advantage of [such] tools.
You need to get people thinking about the
401(k), the 403(b) or the 457 in combination
with the rest of [their] finances. "
Kelli Send, a principal in and senior
vice president of financial wellness services
at adviser firm Francis LLC, noted there are
four generations in the workforce, and it is
critical to develop engagement methods
for each. For example, she said, communicating
only by email is ineffective, as
younger participants may ignore mass
emails. Home mailings, she said, may
work better, particularly when the employee's
spouse or partner is the " treasurer in
the family " managing the finances.
Many participants in Francis' plans
" are very into videos, [so] we're doing a ton
of YouTube-style videos to communicate. "
And " very short and sweet " is fine.
Incentives her firm has used range
from the " Sock It Away " campaign, where,
if participants increased their savings by
1%, they received a pair of funky socks, to
letting participants use wellness points to
reduce their health care costs. To prompt
good attendance at voluntary education
meetings, senior managers need to go,
Send said. " When [participants] see a
senior manager walking down the hallway
to that meeting, trust me, they're noticing. "
Barnes said trying to engage younger
participants can be a challenge, as they
see no instant value in it. If they never
heard their parents discuss saving or
learned about it in school, " they're not even
thinking about this ... they're coming in
more immature before they start. " He said
affirming participants' good efforts can
help transition people from anxiety about
retiring toward excitement about it, and
about saving as a whole. -Remy Samuels
Read about our conference speakers and panelists, who covered everything from
fiduciary duty and investment lineups to plan design, health benefits, cybersecurity
best practices and retirement income, at plansponsor.com/tag/psnc2024.
Thank you to our sponsors.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
http://www.plansponsor.com/tag/psnc2024 http://www.PLANSPONSOR.COM
PLANSPONSOR - September/October 2024

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