Mutual of Omaha Expands Retirement Plan Participant Experience

Mutual of Omaha Retirement Services has launched Imagine Retirement Right, a program designed to motivate employees to take an active interest in their employer-sponsored retirement plan.

The firm says Imagine Retirement Right will create a dramatic shift in employee thinking—one that will engage people who have historically been less active in their company’s retirement plan.

“We have developed and tested an unconventional approach to increase employee engagement,” says John Corrieri, vice president of Mutual of Omaha’s 401(k) business. “Our approach focuses on right brain thinking—instead of the usual numbers-based approach. Once employees understand why they need to save, many are more motivated to engage in their retirement planning process and seek out meetings with their plan adviser.”

Three pilots were conducted utilizing Mutual of Omaha’s new approach. The company says pilot results indicated that employee engagement significantly increased across all groups when utilizing the new approach. Eligible employees increased their retirement contributions by nearly 40%.

Based on the pilots, Mutual expanded its Participant Experience team to include engagement specialists, whose sole function is to help motivate employees to take action in their retirement plan.

Mutual of Omaha has also teamed up with Morningstar Investment Management LLC to help increase participant engagement with that company’s Retirement Manager, an online service designed to help participants decide how much to save, when they may be able to retire, and how to potentially invest the savings in their workplace retirement account. Morningstar uses both webinars and one-on-one sessions to educate plan participants on how this service can help them reach their retirement goals.

Mutual of Omaha also launched a suite of educational materials including presentations, videos and fliers along with its new participant tools.