Chris Basse joined Cornerstone Retirement Advisors as a client relationship manager tasked with supervising and improving overall customer experiences for firm clients.
Basse has 16 years of experience in the retirement services
industry across roles that have focused on helping plan sponsors provide more
robust retirement plans for their employees. He has also worked directly with
participants to ensure they understand and take advantage of retirement plan features.
Before joining Cornerstone Retirement Advisors, Basse worked
as a mid-market client relationship manager for the New England territory at
Great-West Retirement Services, where he serviced 401(k) clients with plan
assets ranging up to $45 million. Previously, he worked at Principal Financial
Group as a 401(k) account executive and, prior to that, held positions at
Putnam Investments in defined contribution plan operations, conversions, and participant
services.
Jim Sampson, managing principal of Cornerstone Retirement
Advisors, says Basse will also be called upon to advocate for the firm’s
corporate clients and represent their employees’ best interests.
Based
in Warwick, Rhode Island, Cornerstone Retirement Advisors provides retirement
plan consulting and advisory services for small- and mid-sized companies’
401(k), 403(b) and profit-sharing plans.
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With
the second release of its Audience of One program, J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan
Services hopes to deepen engagement with participants through tailored
messaging and robust data technology support.
The financial services firm says the re-launched Audience of
One program is designed to be more interactive, personal and easy for
participants to use. In adopting the program, plan advisers and sponsors will
benefit from tools that provide tailored messaging, interactive online games,
video content and other services designed as a “call to action” for employees
to save and invest more effectively.
J.P. Morgan says the new Audience of One experience also
leverages and improves the plan sponsor’s existing communication programs to
help participants take better advantage of new plan design features, such as
automatic enrollment and automatic contribution escalation.
Michael Falcon, managing director and head of retirement at
J.P. Morgan Asset Management, tells PLANSPONSOR that the refresh of Audience of
One is the firm’s most recent attempt to better leverage the expansive amounts
of customer data and intelligence collected in modern retirement plans.
“The refresh on Audience of One is focused on how we can
better leverage all the data we have, as a provider, to improve outcomes,” he
explains. “And with that information, we’re asking how can we be better at
compiling and delivering it so that it has the strongest impact?”
Falcon
says the first iteration of Audience of One has been available for more than a
decade as part of J.P. Morgan’s retirement services offerings, and it has seen
strong success on the goals of integrating participant outreach efforts with
the principals of behavioral finance. He adds that the second release builds on
the original program and incorporates new persona-based outreach efforts that
can use plan and industry data to tailor communications for each participant,
according to his or her unique savings circumstances.
The revamped program also includes a broader digital
experience to educate and support participants as they pursue retirement goals and
improved savings habits. In the pilot for the program’s enhancement, 87% of
website visitors played the interactive games offered and overall
engagement—measured by the number of historically disengaged people who went on
to review their accounts—increased by 17%.
“Audience of One identifies participants who need
encouragement to save and invest more wisely,” explains Greg Walker, director
of participant experience with J.P. Morgan’s Retirement Plan Services unit.
“Messages are highly personalized, actionable, and delivered through multiple
channels, whether that is with an interactive game, on the phone, on the Web,
face-to-face or by email.”
Walker says the program’s aim is to connect with and educate
participants about the steps they should take to save and invest more
effectively—wherever they are on their financial journey. For example, a 35
year-old male participant with a history of disinterest in retirement planning
will be presented with a personalized calculation showing how a relatively
small contribution immediately compounds into a much larger account
contribution thanks to tax deferral and match. Conversely, a 55-year old female
with a history of stronger engagement will be given a specific estimate of her
potential post retirement expenses, based on social norming with others in a
similar locale making a similar income.
Participants also receive a custom calculation of what their
current retirement plan might supply in retirement and how much that might be
improved with a relatively modest increase in savings. J.P. Morgan says this
persona-based strategy resulted in response rates more than twice that of
traditional retirement campaigns and an average net increase in annual savings
of more than $2,000 per participant.