PLANADVISER - Winter 2023 - 16

Cover Story
With more personalized experiences
and solutions, individuals will have
more success and better outcomes
achieving their long-term financial
security and retirement goals.
More Emphasis on
Participation Services
Jane Greenfield, principal and head of
consultant relations,
The Vanguard
Group Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania: A
robust financial wellness experience can
help to address the priorities that compete with participants
saving enough for retirement. Participants have a diverse set
of needs, so it's also critical that a financial wellness program
be personalized to the individual. Leveraging millions of
data points and the use of artificial intelligence, Vanguard's
personalization engine can serve up the next best action for a
participant to take toward their overall well-being. That may
be meeting the company match, contributing to a health
savings account or establishing an emergency savings fund.
Since we elevated our financial wellness program in 2021,
participants who have engaged with it are 50% more likely
to increase their contributions, because they've overcome
barriers that were preventing them from saving.
Mark Smrecek, senior director, retirement,
Willis Towers Watson, Chicago: We see
several key trends
toward supporting
employees' financial situation more
broadly. In our research, the key reasons
employees save less than what's optimal in
their employer plan are debt, other savings
goals, and lack of affordability. To improve savings outcomes,
plan sponsors and advisers are taking the following actions:
integrating broader financial resilience support in the defined
contribution plan; automating curated content to make sure
employees see relevant, actionable nudges; and pairing
employees with a financial coach who focuses on their dayto-day
finances, which pairs extremely well with counselors
focused on long-term savings.
Wealth Management for
Plan Participants
Chris Littlefield, president of retirement
and income solutions, Principal Financial
Group, Des Moines, Iowa: According
to Principal's Future of Retirement Survey,
the ability to provide individualized advice
is expected to grow in importance. More than 70% of both
sponsors and financial professionals agree that personalized
investment portfolios and managed account services will
be common offerings by 2030.
Point-in-time advice can help individuals make financial
decisions when navigating significant life events. Personalizing
those experiences can enable greater customized
investment strategies to account for a variety of factors
such as financial goals, lifestyle, income needs, health-care
needs, contribution levels, assets outside the employer plan
and Social Security benefits. With more personalized experiences
and solutions, individuals will have more success
and better outcomes achieving their long-term financial
security and retirement goals.
Plan Design, Not Just Investments
Greenfield: Data-informed plan design will lead the way
in 2024. Plan sponsors have no shortage of data; what they
need is support turning that data into insight and action so
they can make the right decisions to optimize their plan.
A single plan design decision has the potential to drive
meaningful retirement outcomes for thousands of participants.
For example, by bringing data such as the average
deferral rate in a plan together with context such as industry
benchmarks or replacement ratios in retirement, a plan
sponsor can narrow in on the opportunities to optimize its
plan. This might lead it to consider financial wellness tools
and/or to recognize the important role that participant
advice plays in helping participants better manage multiple
goals and ultimately save more for retirement.
As plan sponsors consider the optional provisions
contained within the SECURE 2.0 legislation and digest the
additional regulatory guidance expected to be released next
year, insights from plan data will play a part in discerning
whether to add one of the emergency savings provisions or
the student loan matching provisions the act has allowed for.
Broadening the Profession:
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
And More
Terri
Fiedler,
president,
retirement
services, Corebridge Financial, Houston:
A major barrier to bringing more women
and a diverse representation of individuals
into our industry is lack of awareness, so we need to build
that talent pipeline when potential candidates are young.
That includes partnering with high schools and universities
16 planadviser.com | Winter 2023 | Plan Management
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PLANADVISER - Winter 2023

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