Prudential Ramps Up Financial Wellness Offerings

Among other new capabilities, Prudential is expanding its financial wellness engagement solutions to include a financial coaching service, available via phone and one-way screen share.

Prudential Financial Inc. introduced a range of new financial wellness solutions, which will be available via employers, to help individuals manage student loan debt, navigate job changes, access financial coaching and develop a personalized financial roadmap.

Prudential’s workplace financial wellness platform now includes LINK by Prudential, an interactive, personalized resource that enables people to identify their most important financial milestones and create a path toward achieving them. Already available to individuals through Prudential’s website, employees can use LINK to create an online personal profile and establish goals like building an emergency fund, insuring loved ones, saving for retirement or purchasing a home.

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LINK by Prudential leverages AI technology, allowing employees to integrate their existing Prudential retirement accounts and non-Prudential financial accounts to help round out their financial wellness roadmap. The LINK experience enables employees to be self-guided, work with an investment adviser via video chat or phone or meet in person with a financial professional from Prudential Advisors.

Prudential is also expanding its financial wellness engagement capabilities to include a financial coaching service, available via phone and one-way screen share. This coaching service is designed to help individuals learn about and adopt healthier financial behaviors, such as developing and sticking to a budget. The service is being piloted with selected employers.

The company is adding several new solutions that focus on specific life events and customer needs. In addition to the emergency savings and budgeting solutions it already offers, Prudential is launching Student Loan Assistance, an online resource that enables individuals to evaluate student loan consolidation and repayment options, and allows employers to make one-time or ongoing repayment contributions. Prudential is partnering with Vault, an Austin, Texas-based student loan technology benefits firm, to provide this service.

The company is also introducing PruPassages, a new program that helps people make more-informed decisions and maintain financial wellness during a job transition. As part of the service, a licensed financial professional from Prudential Advisors proactively reaches out to employees to offer guidance on their options to continue life insurance coverage. Employees can also receive a complimentary evaluation of their financial needs, priorities and goals.

In addition, Prudential is providing new beneficiary services for individuals who have just lost a loved one, with an easier claim process and resources to help guide their decision-making. These new capabilities include digital submission of claim forms, text and email status alerts, and online resources that help beneficiaries navigate tasks like planning a funeral and managing their loved one’s financial and social media accounts.

“Each person’s journey to financial wellness is deeply personal and constantly evolving,” says Judy Dougherty, who was recently appointed Prudential’s chief financial wellness officer. “We all face pivotal financial decisions throughout our lives, when the choices we make have the potential to either put us on a track toward financial health or derail us. This insight has guided our work on new solutions that are designed to be as in sync as possible with our customers’ lives. From digital experiences to coaching and in-person advice, our goal is to meet our customers where they are, and to help them to make informed decisions that establish and sustain their financial wellness over a lifetime.”

To learn more about Prudential’s Financial Wellness offerings for the workplace, visit www.prudential.com/employers/financial-wellness.

Plan Sponsors Affected by Severe Storms Get ERISA Compliance Relief

The Department says it recognizes that severe storms may impede efforts by plan fiduciaries in Nebraska, Iowa and Alabama to comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) over the next few months.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has published employee benefit plan compliance guidance and relief for victims of the 2019 Nebraska Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, and Flooding (per FEMA-DR- 4420); 2019 Iowa Severe Storms and Flooding (per DR-4421); and the 2019 Alabama Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, and Tornadoes (per FEMA-DR-4419).

The Department says it recognizes that a natural disaster may impede efforts by plan fiduciaries, employers, labor organizations, service providers, and participants and beneficiaries to comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) over the next few months. So, it will not—solely on the basis of a failure attributable to a covered disaster—take enforcement action with respect to a temporary delay in forwarding participant loan repayments or contributions to plans.

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In addition, if a plan sponsor fails to follow procedural requirements for plan loans or distributions imposed by the terms of the plan, the DOL will not treat it as a failure if, that failure is solely attributable to the covered disasters, the plan administrator makes a good-faith diligent effort under the circumstances to comply with those requirements, and the plan administrator makes a reasonable attempt to assemble any missing documentation as soon as practicable.

The guidance also provides relief for timing of blackout notices and processing benefit claims.

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report filing relief is provided in accordance with the relevant covered disaster news releases listed on the IRS disaster relief website under “Recent Tax Relief.”

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