Products January 6, 2016

CUNA Mutual Enhances Participant Website

A new section for those older than 55 helps them shift into planning mode.
Reported by

CUNA Mutual Group has upgraded its BenefitsForYou.com retirement planning website, offering additional guidance and tools for plan participants and sponsors to successfully manage their retirement plans.

The website now features device optimization, and can be used on any device, including a desktop or laptop computer, tablet or mobile phone.

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BenefitsForYou now offers a new focus for RetireOnTarget, the online guidance tool participants use to make informed decisions to create a financially secure retirement. Rather than emphasizing asset accumulation, the tool takes a more practical and tangible approach by helping participants determine if they will truly replace their paycheck in retirement.

RetiredOnTarget is a new section featuring resources to help those older than 55 shift their focus from saving for retirement to preparing for and living in retirement. These include online classes, videos, articles and calculators designed specifically for near-retirees.

“We focus on creating a complete platform of communication, guidance and investments that help hardworking Americans achieve a financially secure retirement. Many workers struggle with this, and we want to increase their odds by giving plan participants the information they need to make good decisions in a straight-forward, understandable way,” says Paul Chong, senior vice president, CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions.

More information about the company is at www.cunamutualrs.com.
Products January 5, 2016

Alliance Benefit, Retirement Clearinghouse Partner on Rollovers

Retirement Clearinghouse will guide participants on consolidating accounts.
Reported by

Alliance Benefit Group of Illinois (ABGI) is partnering with Retirement Clearinghouse to assist participants with consolidating their retirement savings in their current employers’ plans. Retirement Clearinghouse will help participants locate, transport and merge their accounts.

This partnership is the first relationship Retirement Clearinghouse has with a third-party administrator (TPA)/recordkeeper where the TPA/recordkeeper is paying for the cost of the consolidation services; there is no cost at all for the sponsor or the participant. Retirement Clearinghouse has contractual relationships with 42 other TPAs/recordkeepers, most of which are based on automatic rollover services. The company also has one-off relationships with a number of recordkeepers to facilitate rollovers at large plans.

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“Once we identify a participant who is interested in this offering, Retirement Clearinghouse will work directly with them to seamlessly move retirement assets from an inactive plan, IRA or both to their current plan under ABGI—benefiting participants, our plan clients and the retirement system as a whole,” says John Blossom, Jr., president and CEO of AGBI. “We hope participants in the plans we administer will take advantage of this opportunity to receive much-needed assistance with consolidating what they’ve saved during their working lives—which can potentially increase their income in retirement and is available at no cost to them.”

A recent survey by Boston Research Technologies found that if they were offered a rollover service, 83% of Millennials, 83% of Generation X-ers and 78% of Baby Boomers would take advantage of it, according to the firm.

Rollover services are sorely needed, AGBI says, pointing to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report that found that the nation’s retirement system loses $74 billion in assets every year, and 89% of this leakage is the result of cash-outs. The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) estimates that if leakage was reduced by 50%, Americans would have an additional $1.3 trillion in savings over the course of a decade. EBRI has also determined that due to auto enrollment, there is a plethora of small retirement accounts; in 2012, 40% of retirement plan accounts had balances less than $10,000.

Spencer Williams, president and CEO of Retirement Clearinghouse says:  “Consolidating retirement savings accounts is a cumbersome and time-consuming process, and participants who don’t receive guidance tend to cash out or leave their balances behind. These decisions can deplete participants’ savings over time, so Alliance Benefit Group’s forward-thinking is vital for helping Americans save more for retirement.”

Retirement Clearinghouse also notes that most plans allow rollovers; according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America 2014 Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans, 98.4% of plans accept rollovers from other plans.

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