PLANADVISER - July/August 2019 - 30

sion is single-threaded. A participant isn't going to decide to
increase deferrals because of one visit to our website. I want
our messages to look the same across all media, " he says.
In addition, T. Rowe Price tailors messages to what is
relevant to participants at their life stage, Collins says. " We
have reshaped our tools to simplify the messages and get
individuals to focus on one issue at a time, " he says. " Historically,
you would see websites that would try and get participants
to do three to five things at once. "
The next step for recordkeepers, of course, is to use
data analytics to anticipate a participant's next move, says
Nathan Voris, head of strategy for Schwab Retirement Plan
Services in Richfield, Ohio.
Ascensus has its own approach
for anticipating participants'
needs and tailoring communications
to them. " Leveraging
predictive analytics and business
insights-including plan comparisons,
proprietary research, and
value and fee benchmarking-we
synthesize data from multiple
sources to give plan sponsors and
their financial advisers a customized
plan to help employees save
for what matters most, " says Jason
Crane, head of retirement sales at
Ascensus, in Chicago. " Plan sponsors
start by understanding the
specifics of their plan and then
compare those with other plans at
Ascensus. "
Currently, Schwab's Smart
doing, going forward, to help plan sponsors make better
plan design decisions and participants, better investment
decisions. "
This AI and machine learning, which John Hancock has
been using for the past six years, replaced sophisticated
algorithms.
it has
" As participants interact with us more, we
have a larger store of information that has become more
reliable and useful for us, " Murphy says. " In fact,
" If we were to hit
participants with
changed our communications with participants and sponsors
in a meaningful, transformative way in the past three
to four years. "
To oversee these data analytics efforts " and ensure that
data is turned into intelligence
from which we can gain insights, "
Murphy says, Hancock now has a
chief data officer.
Like other recordkeepers,
more than one idea
at a time, it could be
overwhelming and
cause inertia. Instead,
we present them
with the next best
step they can take
Communications program prompts
people to make important decisions
about their retirement savings such
as to name a beneficiary or increase
their deferrals to meet the company
match, Voris says. " We place these
messages on the website. " Participants still have to log on to
see them, he adds.
Vanguard has built its recordkeeping platform for
to move themselves
forward. "
participants on a " personalization engine, " says Shannon
Nutter-Wiersbitzky, head of participant strategy and development
at the company, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
That platform combines data analytics with behavioral
finance to assess what kinds of information and visuals
people respond to, in order to present them with a customized
experience, she says.
" We are continually advancing the participant experience
and have a culture of constant experimentation, "
Nutter-Wiersbitzky says, noting that even small improvements
can yield big results in terms of improving participants'
retirement readiness.
Likewise, John Hancock Retirement Services uses AI
and machine learning, says CEO Pat Murphy. Together,
those create " active intelligence that can make predictive
and prescriptive intelligence, to tell us what we should be
Hancock presents one idea, one
action, out of a repertoire of 17
to 18 items, to participants at a
time, Murphy says. " If we were to
hit participants with more than
one idea at a time, it could be
overwhelming and cause inertia.
Instead, we present them with the
next best step they can take to
move themselves forward. "
As part of the new, personalized
experience that recordkeepers
offer participants, T. Rowe Price
no longer considers retirement
income its sole purpose to communicate
with participants, Collins
says. Yes, they should hear about
having adequate savings, " but if
they're 25 years old and a calculator
tells them they'll need $2,300
a month in retirement income
but they're projected to have only
$1,900, they don't know what that means. Instead, we get
them to focus on their deferral rate, their allocation and
financial wellness issues such as student loans and debt. "
Indeed, Buck Global LLC, a benefits consulting and technology
services firm in Chicago,
is seeing recordkeepers
offer financial wellness programs that help individuals with
all of their financial goals, says Scot Marcotte, Buck's chief
technology officer. Many also offer aggregation tools that let
participants see their entire financial picture, not just the
assets in their retirement plan, Marcotte notes.
" So often, we see retirement plan advisers struggling to
get this data together, " he says. " Today, recordkeepers are
starting to make that process so much easier.
" The intersection of an individual's physical, emotional
and financial well-being is where the technology is heading, "
he adds. " Recordkeepers will begin helping individuals
think about where they are today and where they want to
be. That's the future-it's not just a person's current financial
picture. " -Lee Barney
30 | planadviser.com July-August 2019
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