New Standard Solution Combines Behavioral Finance, Best Practices

The solutions, which include auto-enrollment with the company’s Mainspring Managed service as the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), combines behavioral finance research and “proven best practices” to help make retirement goals attainable for plan participants, according to the firm.

“Paper” Trail

Coinciding with the release of its new participant solution, The Standard has also sponsored a new research paper written by Dr. Alessandro Previtero of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. The paper makes the case for applying behavioral finance principles to improve retirement plan design with regard to desired participant outcomes.  According to the Standard, the paper validates Mainspring Managed as a solution that successfully incorporates behavioral finance best practices.

“As Dr. Previtero’s paper illustrates, many participants fail to enroll due to a number of challenges, including inertia. And those that do enroll often fail to contribute adequately and have difficulty managing their investments,” said Sheri Fitts, director of communications and large plan sales. “The Standard’s simplified solution addresses each of these challenges by automatically enrolling new participants into our Mainspring Managed service – which includes automatic contribution increases as needed as well as management and reallocation of investments as appropriate.”

The Standard also offers select target date funds as QDIAs, “in order to be flexible in meeting the needs of its distribution channel as well as plan sponsors,” according to the firm.  The company has also launched expanded online services for both plan sponsors and plan participants, including new automatic enrollment tools and reporting capabilities, according to the announcement.

The Standard’s new sponsored research paper, entitled “Using Behavioral Finance to Help Employees Achieve Their Retirement Savings Goals,” is available for downloading at http://www.standard.com/pensions/publications/behavioral_finance_15219_7_10.pdf