Client Service

Financial wellness programs can leverage employees' financial personalities to decide their approach to financial wellness programs, PwC says.

Most HSAs do not even have an investment component, but this will change, as health care brokers have been driving plan sponsor adoption of HSAs, but in the future advisers will, Jamie Greenleaf, with Cafaro Greenleaf, told attendees of PLANSPONSOR’s 2018 HSA Conference.

Speakers at PLANSPONSOR's 2018 HSA Conference discussed educating participants about investing health savings account (HSA) assets and planning for retirement health care costs.

According to FPA, financial planners who engage in “know your client” behaviors gain deeper personal fulfillment from many more of their client relationships.

Willis Towers Watson suggests portals integrated with financial planning tools can help employees make strategic decisions about where to best save their money based on their unique financial situation.

When individuals plan ahead for long-term care, they can better secure their own future while reducing financial burdens on their friends and family.

Sponsors expect their advisers to be proactive and to push their plans to the next level.

Obtaining data on participants from retirement readiness tools, recordkeepers and aggregation tools is important in order to tailor effective communications.

Willis Towers Watson believes that sponsors must analyze the retirement adequacy and meaningful benchmarks for individuals or segments of the population.

Sixty-one percent of all participants surveyed by J.P. Morgan agreed with the statement, “If I could push an ‘easy’ button for retirement and completely hand over my retirement planning and investing to a financial professional, I would.”

The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies makes suggestions in a new report for how employers can take steps to enhance retirement security for workers.

While college savings and student loan debt aren’t typically an area of focus for retirement plan advisers, new survey data suggests a few simple reminders can be a big help to clients; this is especially true when it comes to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The adviser is in a good position to remind widowed individuals to continue to think about and plan for the long-term financial future—difficult as that may be after the loss of a spouse.

The consulting firm says that few plan sponsors pay close attention to how their employees allocate their retirement savings.

The Segal Group suggests nine steps plans can take, starting with creating an information security policy.

According to Josh Cohen, a big part of PGIM’s strategy as a DCIO provider is to foster conversations across plan sponsors’ own organizations, “presenting them with a framework for frank and practical discussions between the HR and finance functions.”

Mercer offers recommendations for retirement plan sponsors to search for missing participants.

Contributing more than the minimum required for 2017 by the September 15 deadline will result in a higher deduction for plan sponsors, and continuing to accelerate funding in the future can minimize PBGC costs, improve funded status and mitigate higher required contributions in coming years.

The company will offer a lump-sum distribution window to certain participants and transfer certain retiree assets to a group annuity.

Morningstar suggests individuals and their advisers should focus on strategies that can maximize retirement savings, regardless of planned retirement age.