Free Communications Campaign Offered to Retirement Plan Sponsors

In preparations for National Retirement Security Week, which is October 15 to 21 this year, the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) is offering a free, ready-to-use communications campaign for retirement plan sponsors.

The “Your Whole Story” campaign, which can be used by public- and private-sector plan sponsors, is designed to engage employees in a discussion about their overall financial decision-making, with an emphasis on their retirement savings decisions. The campaign was created by the National Association of Retirement Plan Participants (NARPP) using a process grounded in behavioral finance and human centered design to generate higher levels of engagement and behavior change.

NAGDCA says test use on County of Los Angeles employees in 2016 resulted in a 25% increase in plan participation and a 48% increase in savings rates.

The “Your Whole Story” campaign is a suite of ready-to-use materials that can be easily accessed, used generically or customized, and implemented in digital or printed form by plan sponsors to use with their employees, and employees can share with family and friends. It covers a wide-range of topics, including the need to have an emergency fund, the power of compound interest and the importance of never removing funds from a retirement account.

“NAGDCA’s goal in facilitating the creation of National Retirement Security Week was to create a grassroots movement for societal change around retirement. ‘Your Whole Story’ is a campaign using best practices and behaviorally effective methods to engage participants in becoming aware of their role in preparing for retirement. Specifically, it was designed to relieve the burden on plan sponsors, who are typically tasked with communicating with employees, but often lack the necessary resources,” says Polly Scott, NAGDCA executive board member and former president, and Communication & Deferred Compensation Plan manager at the Wyoming Retirement System.

“Your Whole Story” information and materials may be accessed at http://www.nagdca.org/NRSW/Story.