Nationwide Embarks on PPA Education Campaign

Nationwide’s “Straight Talk about the Pension Protection Act” campaign gives materials to employers so that they can take advantage of the opportunities within the PPA and build a better retirement plan for their employees, the company said in a press release.

In the guide for plan sponsors, Nationwide discusses PPA provisions such as:

• safe harbor automatic enrollment and automatic deferral increase options that don’t require ADP/ACP testing.
• that safe harbor automatic enrollment requires either an employer matching contribution of up to 3.5% or 3% non-elective contribution and that employers give a written notice 30 days prior to automatic enrollment and a contribution increase.
• qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) options and the provision that allows a fiduciary to select QDIAs on behalf of a participant that hasn’t given direction on what fund(s) to invest in.

For investment professionals Nationwide created sales ideas they can use to engage plan sponsor clients. In the guide for investment professionals, Nationwide makes such suggestions as:

• working with plan sponsors’ third-party administrator to outline potential costs impact to the plan sponsor for adopting automatic enrollment versus the additional benefit provided to all employees.
• helping clients implement a Roth retirement plan if plan participants think taxes will be raised in the future; expect to be in higher income bracket; etc.
• hiring an outside firm to give investment advice to participants.
• helping plan sponsors implement the provision of the PPA that allows a non-spouse beneficiary to roll over the benefits they receive from a retirement plan to an IRA.

For more information about the Straight Talk campaign and to acquire a full set of materials visit www.nationwide.com.