SSGA Introduces New Financial Wellness Tool

The Retirement Navigator identifies a user's savings persona and offers tips for improving retirement readiness.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has launched a financial wellness tool called Retirement Navigator, which provides users with insights into three things they can do to support their future success and live comfortably in retirement.

Megan Yost, head of DC Participant Engagement for SSGA, tells PLANADVISER the Retirement Navigator is available to anyone. It’s accessible through SSGA’s Defined Contribution website

The Retirement Navigator uses a short, online quiz that helps individuals understand their approach to retirement planning. After an individual answers seven straight-forward questions, they are provided with a description about how they should approach engaging, saving and investing for retirement. The questions aim to elicit opinions about participants’ satisfaction with their employers’ plan options, how they feel about choosing their own investments, preference for savings advice, as well as their appetite for risk. 

Yost says SSGA’s research has identified that there are four personas that individuals generally fall into: an Armchair Traveler, Tourist, Copilot or Adventurer. Once someone’s persona is identified, the Retirement Navigator offers the user three suggestions about what he or she can do now to feel even more prepared and confident that the user is on track for the retirement he or she envisions. Additionally, users are given the opportunity to view the description and tips offered to the other personas.

“The suggestions are specific to each persona, but not the individual quiz taker,” Yost says. “The goal of the navigator is not to provide individuals advice about how to save, but rather help each user identify their approach to engaging with retirement planning, and from there put them on a path to help them feel even more empowered about how best to plan for their future retirements.”

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