Product and Service Launches – 4/17/25

OneDigital enhances benefits capabilities with BoliColi acquisition; IRALOGIX launches a retirement preparedness benchmark; Mercer Advisors expands its family office services; and more.

OneDigital Enhances Benefits Capabilities with BoliColi Acquisition 

OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC has acquired BoliColi, an independent consulting firm specializing in executive and director benefit solutions.  

The acquisition deepens OneDigital’s capabilities in the east region and enhances its ability to deliver tailored retention and financial wellness strategies for clients across the country, according to the announcement. 

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BoliColi offers a full suite of executive benefit solutions, including nonqualified plan consulting and customized investment and insurance funding strategies. 

IRALOGIX Launches Retirement Preparedness Benchmark 

IRALOGIX has announced the debut of the IRALOGIX Retirement Readiness Index, a comprehensive national benchmark built to track Americans’ preparedness to “retire with financial security and peace of mind.” 

The IRRI measures overall U.S. retirement readiness across five dimensions: savings and investments, health care readiness, lifestyle and spending, emotional well-being and economic and policy confidence.  

In its inaugural Q1 2025 evaluation, the IRRI reported a score of 45.9 out of 100. Scores below 50 fall into the “moderate risk” zone, indicating pre-retirees may face uncertain futures without adequate savings, health care coverage or financial confidence to sustain themselves through retirement. 

Mercer Advisors Launches Held-Away Retirement Account Management Solution 

Mercer Advisors announced the expansion of its family office services with the addition of held-away account management becoming a core offering, marked by the launch of Account Bridge—a unified solution embedded in its advisory portal that enables clients to receive active management of 401(k), 403(b), 457 and 529 accounts directly from their trusted adviser. 

Held-away assets are client account assets that are outside the range of management by their adviser. 

Developed in collaboration with Pontera, Account Bridge integrates Pontera’s technology and custodial interfaces into Mercer Advisors’ core adviser platform.  

The solution allows the firm’s advisers to better serve its 33,000 clients and adhere to its fiduciary commitments by better understanding the context of clients’ investments and having a view into the entirety of clients’ financial pictures, according to Mercer Advisors.  

Payroll Integrations, UKG Partner to Automate Benefits Administration 

Payroll Integrations introduced a new technology partnership with UKG, a provider of HR, payroll, workforce management and culture solutions. 

Companies that use UKG Pro or UKG Ready can now automate administrative tasks using Payroll Integrations. With pre-built integrations into widely used benefit providers in the U.S., including 90% of the largest 401(k) providers, Payroll Integrations’ technology transfers data from payroll systems and benefit plan providers to eliminate manual entries and “ensure data accuracy.” 

“Companies want to support employees’ financial wellness, but it can be hard to find time to connect and engage with employees when HR teams are bogged down with hours of payroll and benefits-related administrative tasks,” said Doug Sabella, CEO of Payroll Integrations, in a statement. “We’re looking forward to working with UKG to expand our work to automate HR hassles so companies can prioritize their employees.” 

 

Plan Sponsors Remain Focused on Workforce Retirement Benefits

Repositioning defined contribution plans as income programs could be the best path forward, according to a recent MetLife study.

Despite an ever-changing macroeconomic environment, plan sponsors remain dedicated to offering workforce retirement benefits in the long term. According to MetLife’s 2025 Enduring Retirement Model Study, 82% of plan sponsors say they cannot foresee a time when their company would discontinue retirement benefits.

With the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans, plan sponsors have been shifting retirement decisionmaking onto their plan participants. Plan sponsor respondents to the MetLife survey reported that the most important choices a plan sponsor can make to help defined contribution plan participants save for retirement are offering matching contributions (62%), making participant education available and accessible (45%), offering automatic features (42%), convincing employees of the benefits of saving early (40%) and providing access to financial advisers for customized advice/guidance (39%).

How Sponsors Help Safeguard Participant Savings

MetLife survey respondents said the most important choices a plan sponsor can make to help DC plan participants protect their retirement savings in retirement are offering retirement income solutions that provide guaranteed income for life (80%), providing “off-boarding,” or retirement transition education and tools (76%) and providing a capital preservation option, such as stable value funds, to protect their savings (72%).

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Should DC Plans Be Repositioned to Retirement Income Programs?

With a recognition that retirees do best when receiving a steady stream of income, more than half of plan sponsors (56%) said they think they should consider repositioning their DC plans as retirement income programs. Only 15% disagreed, and the remaining respondents were unsure (29%).

The reasoning behind this possible new positioning is that 93% of plan sponsors recognized that retirees need a source of guaranteed income they cannot outlive, and 92% of plan sponsors said the decline of traditional defined benefit plans has resulted in greater reliance on defined contribution plans to provide retirement income. Of plan sponsors surveyed, 85% said they feel that increasing life expectancy is negatively impacting workers’ retirement security.

Sponsors Plan to Offer Guaranteed Retirement Income

“We are already seeing plan sponsors taking steps in the right direction when it comes to offering retirement income solutions,” said Melissa Moore, MetLife’s senior vice president of annuities. “Two-thirds of companies already offer, or are expecting to offer, guaranteed retirement income in the next five years. This includes 35% of companies that report that their DC plan currently has an option that enables plan participants to convert some or all their money into guaranteed lifetime income in retirement.

What to Know About Adding Income to a Plan Lineup

How the regulatory landscape dictates the selection of a retirement income solution—and how advisers can frame the discussion with clients—can be found here.

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