Fall 2011
Upcoming Service Enhancements Help Participants Maintain Focus
We're currently enhancing our most prominent tools to help make retirement planning easier for participants and plan administration and management more efficient for plan sponsors. Many of the improvements are already available or will become available in the coming months.
Redesigned Personal Savings Center Website – Available Early 2012
Our participant website is undergoing a significant redesign based on feedback collected from users and focus groups. Upon entry to the site, users will encounter a new dashboard containing key information up front. We have also made important functions easier to find, enabling participants to quickly access their balance, return on investments, any loan balances and an overview of contributions.
Site navigation will be more efficient and intuitive. The new navigation bar features the most frequently visited destinations, making it possible to quickly access information. Users will also have the ability to sort data displayed in tables based on the values in any of the columns.
More graphics were added throughout the site to simply convey complicated concepts such as the importance of diversification or the reality of being over-weighted in a single fund or asset class. As people become more visual in how they absorb information, we are adapting by delivering data and educational information in a way that is compelling to participants.
Fund performance will now be available to all plans through a detailed table showing values for the last three months, year-to-date, one-year, three-year, five-year and 10-year periods.
Enhanced PlanNet® Website – Available Early 2012
PlanNet, our plan sponsor website, is also receiving a makeover to improve usability and the overall customer experience. Like the Personal Savings Center, the changes include moving key data to more prominent locations, using graphics to convey information, and making navigation more efficient and intuitive.
Plan sponsors will appreciate the site's improved usability for the most common tasks, including initiating and approving participant loans and withdrawals, and viewing plan documents and participant accounts. Lastly, clients will be able to conduct searches for participant information more quickly than on the current PlanNet.
New Participants' Quarterly Statements – Available October 2011
Quarterly statements have been redesigned and simplified for greater clarity and readability. The new simple, straightforward design places key account summary information on the first page to allow participants to find critical information at a glance. The statements are shorter, but participants will continue to receive the same detailed information they are used to seeing.
On our Mainspring Managed statements, information was reorganized to better provide participants with a summary of where they are in their current savings and what we are doing to help them reach their goals. This will allow participants to reacquaint themselves with their savings strategy and its integral relationship to the investment strategy.
Improved Enrollment Booklets – Available November 2011
The enrollment booklet is an essential component of the enrollment process. Existing booklets were redesigned in an attractive new format that includes fresh content intended to make enrollment-related decision-making easier.
The booklets incorporate behavioral finance principles that help eligible employees overcome common, mostly unconscious, obstacles to saving and investing for retirement. The intent is to help them develop a clear vision of their retirement – today.
