Mutual of Omaha Launches Imagine Retirement Right Website
Imagine Retirement Right is Mutual of Omaha’s patent-pending approach to motivate employees to take an active role in improving their retirement savings.
Mutual of Omaha Retirement Services launched a new website to supplement its Imagine Retirement Right participant engagement methodology.
Imagine
Retirement Right is Mutual of Omaha’s patent-pending approach to
motivate employees to take an active role in improving their retirement
savings. The company says the program has yielded great success with
increased plan participation, contribution rates and requests for
one-on-one meetings with a plan adviser.
The website enhances
this employee engagement program. It will assist Mutual’s Engagement
Specialists in creating a personalized experience utilizing techniques
from financial psychology theory to help increase plan participation and
motivate people to save for retirement.
“Our approach focuses on right brain thinking—which is a 180 degree
shift from the traditional numbers based financial education approach.
Once our patent-pending process helps an employee understand what he or
she is saving for, that individual is more motivated to engage in their
retirement planning process and seek out a meeting with their plan
adviser,” says John Corrieri, vice president of Mutual of Omaha’s
Retirement Services business. “We have found this method allows
employees to relax, take an active role in their financial future, and
get retirement right.”
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Fifty-six
percent of employees are stressed out over their financial situation, Bank of America
Merrill Lynch found in a survey. This is causing people to spend a median of
two hours a week, or 100 hours a year, parsing over their finances while at
work. Millennials spend an average of four hours a week on their personal
finances; Gen X, two hours; and Baby Boomers one hour.
Among the 56% who say they are financially stressed, 53% of them say it is
interfering with their ability to perform their job. Bank of America Merrill
Lynch believes the solution to this is for employers to offer formal financial wellness programs, so that their employees can get their financial houses in
order.
“Stress over
personal finances extends into the workplace, impacting employees’
productivity, health and overall well-being,” says Lorna Sabbia, head of
retirement and personal wealth solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “This
confirms our dedication to working with employers to help employees navigate
financial concerns and improve their financial wellness.”
One dichotomy that the survey found is that, while many employees are
financially stressed, 87% are optimistic about their financial future. The top
three reasons for this optimism are living within their means (51%), being in
good health (49%) and having a well-paying job (45%).
However, even optimistic employees have concerns, particularly women. Among all
employees, the top concern is running out of money in retirement, cited by 64%.
The next concern is having to work longer than they had hoped for, cited by 61%
of women and 51% of men. That is followed by not being able to work due to a
serious illness (58% of women and 52% of men), not being able to pay for a
child’s education (57% of women and 52% of men) and losing their job (45% of
women and 46% of men).
The
1,200 people who were polled said that certain life events impacted their
finances, most notably buying a home (22%), losing a job (18%) and dealing with
a serious illness (9%). When asked how they would deal with these challenges,
more than half said they would have saved more money. Bank of America Merrill
Lynch, in its “2017 Workplace Benefits Report,” says that “taking the time to
educate employees about the potential impact of major life events can help them
better prepare and estimate the financial impact of future events and
potentially minimize the impact on other aspects of their lives.”
Another source of financial stress for employees is managing health care costs.
Seventy-nine percent of employees said they dealt with rising health care costs
in 2016, up from 69% in 2015. These significant costs are causing 72% of women
and 59% of men to spend less on recreation or entertainment, and 63% of women
and 62% of men to curtail their retirement savings.
“Managing health care costs and retirement savings go hand in hand and can
exert significant influence on each other,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch says.
“As employees start to save less for their future needs to cover their health
care costs today, their ability to fund the future and retirement they envision
is placed at risk.”
NEXT: Looking to their employersThe survey
definitively found that employees want and expect their employers to help them
manage their finances, with 50% ranking retirement savings as the top priority.
Other concerns vary by age, with Millennials and Gen X also being interested in
good general savings habits and paying down debt. Baby Boomers are also
interested in planning for health care costs and paying down debt.
Forty percent of employees of all ages would like their employer to bring in
financial professionals to provide education. An even greater percentage, 86%,
said they would participate in a financial education program if their employer
made it available.
“Employers can be a powerful resource in helping employees pursue their
financial goals beyond retirement and reduce the financial stress they are
feeling,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch says in its report. “Making slight
changes to retirement plan design and offering access to an action plan can
help employers establish a culture of financial wellness that can help reduce
employee stress, help employees save more for retirement and help put them on a
path towards retirement success.”
The Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Workplace Benefits Report can be
downloaded here.