Principal Tool Helps Employees Use Benefit Programs

My Principal Edge Milestones is an interactive program that analyzes financial needs and gives employees a roadmap to help meet their goals, according to a news release from Principal. Milestones helps employees of plan customers identify shortfalls in saving for retirement and shows gaps in other financial needs.

“It’s little wonder 66% of American workers say they have not conducted an analysis of their financial needs in the past three years,’ said Luke Vandermillen, National Director of Worksite Solutions for the Principal Financial Group, in the release. “Making financial decisions is complex and calculators often require more information than they have at their fingertips. With Milestones, employees can develop a plan with as little as four pieces of information. What they get in return is a one-page, personalized timeline with simple steps that help them take action.”

Available online or at the worksite, early use of the tool showed double-digit increases in benefit participation, Principal said. In 2007, employees took some 40,000 benefit plan actions after using Milestones during 68,000 one-on-one worksite meetings.

Milestones works alone or with one-on-one worksite meetings with salaried benefits experts. Employees see how the benefit plans offered by their employer work together to help them plan for the future, the release said.

For more information about Milestones and to check out a simplified version of the tool, visit www.principal.com.