John Hancock Retirement Launches Financial Wellness Platform

The digital program offers financial-literary courses on topics ranging from credit card management to estate planning, and also extends to family members of retirement plan participants.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has partnered with EverFi to release an online financial wellness platform.

Now available to all John Hancock retirement plan participants, My Learning Center is a digital program offering education based on core financial competency. Subjects covered through this mobile and tablet-ready platform range from identity protection and credit card management to estate planning, with more than 20 modules offered in English and Spanish.

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Features encompass video, animation and gaming to engage and reward participants for taking control of their financial future, the firm says. Moreover, the educational programs extend to family members of participants and offer courses designed for varying age groups from elementary school to college students and adults.

“We’ve seen, through our annual Financial Stress Survey, that a lack of financial literacy is a significant cause of stress,” says Patrick Murphy, president of John Hancock Retirement Plan Services.

“It’s a societal challenge that cuts across income groups and directly affects an individual’s ability to prepare for retirement,” Murphy adds. “If we want to engage our participant base, we need to provide the tools to address the basic causes of financial stress, so they can succeed. That’s why we made sure My Learning Center would be available not only to retirement plan participants, but to their families as well, through age-appropriate modules. We want to engage the entire family, and begin to impact individuals’ financial literacy, in some cases even before they enter the workforce.”

John Hancock has worked with EverFi for the past four years, providing financial literacy curriculums to 35 Michigan public schools, and to Boston-area students through the MLK Scholars program. Almost 2,800 students in Michigan and Boston took a combined total of more than 13,000 EverFi course modules this year, and reported being significantly more confident and better prepared to make the financial decisions that they will face as they move through their teen years and into young adulthood. Earlier this year, NASDAQ recognized John Hancock’s learning initiatives with an Innovation in Financial Education Award.

“We are incredibly proud of the success EverFi and John Hancock have had within our communities,” says Thomas Crohan, ‎AVP and counsel, John Hancock Corporate Responsibility & Government Relations. “Broadening our relationship with EverFi reinforces our commitment to improving financial literacy in America.”

Will Retirement Plan Assets Decrease?

While a report from the DOL shows increases in employers adopting both DB and DC plans and assets growing, it also indicates retirement plans are paying out more than they take in.

Data extracted by the Department of Labor’s (DOL)’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) from 2014 Form 5500 reports finds defined benefit (DB) retirement plans are not disappearing.

The total number of retirement plans increased in 2014 to approximately 685,000 plans—a 0.6% increase over 2013. The number of defined contribution (DC) plans grew by 0.5%, while the number of DB plans increased by 1.6%.

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The data also shows the total amount of assets held by retirement plans increased 5.5% to $8.3 trillion in 2014. DB plan assets increased 4.2% to nearly $3.0 trillion, while DC plan assets increased by 6.3% to $5.3 trillion.

However, the report notes that in 2014, 21.4% of DB plans report being fully frozen. Also, 14.9% of total DB plan assets were frozen in 2014.

In 2014, there were 89.9 million active participants in private-sector retirement plans. Approximately 14.5 million were active participants in DB plans, and 75.4 million were active participants in DC plans.

Plans Paying Out More Than They Receive 

DC plan contributions increased by 7.0%, to $403.5 billion in 2014, the Form 5500 data shows. DB plan contributions decreased by 13.9% to $97.9 billion. 

In total, retirement plans disbursed $650 billion for payment of benefits in 2014, with $221.6 billion being disbursed from DB plans and $428.4 billion from DC plans. These payments were made either directly to retirees, beneficiaries, and terminating employees or to insurance carriers for payment of benefits. These amounts reflect an 11% increase for DC plans and a 3.5% decrease for DB plans.

Overall, retirement plans disbursed $148.6 billion more than they received in contributions. DB plans disbursed $123.7 billion more than they collected in contributions, while DC plans disbursed $24.9 billion more than they received in contributions.

The EBSA report is here.

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