Charles C. Cornelio is retiring as president of retirement
plan services at Lincoln Financial Group, a position he has held since 2009. Cornelio will retire from his
position in April.
He joined Chubb Life Insurance in 1988, which was purchased
by Jefferson Pilot in 1997 and then merged with Lincoln Financial Group in
2005. Cornelio held senior leadership positions at each company, specializing
in legal, government relations, distribution, technology,
customer service, product development, and administrative services and
operations, among other areas. He has served the industry for 30 years.
“On behalf of the board of directors and all Lincoln
Financial employees, I would like to thank Chuck for his many years of
dedicated service,” says Dennis R. Glass, president and CEO of Lincoln
Financial Group. “Among his many accomplishments, Chuck is a nationally
recognized advocate for the preservation and improvement of the private
retirement savings system.”
Mark Konen, the previous leader of the retirement business, will take over the retirement plan services division and its management
team.
Financial Wellness Programs Should Address Key Risks
Employer financial wellness programs may include education about budgeting and paying down debt, but they should also help employees protect themselves against some key financial risks.
Most
employees are unprepared to fully cover key financial risks they face during
their working careers, The Prudential Insurance Company of America has found.
Prudential
says much attention has been given to the financial risk of outliving one’s
assets in retirement, but many employees underestimate three more immediate
risks—loss of family income due to a premature death, loss of income due to illness or
injury, and out-of-pocket health care and other expenses—which could cripple
their financial outlook. Employees that are not adequately protected against
these risks may need to start paying their day-to-day expenses by incurring
credit card debt, using lines of credit, or taking loans from their employer-sponsored
retirement plans, the company contends.
Prudential,
with supporting research and analysis provided by Ernst & Young, developed a new “Prutection Score” metric to help employers evaluate the financial wellness needs of
their employee populations. For each risk, the Prutection Score gauges how
financially prepared employees are should a risk event occur by looking at the
resources available to them, such as personal funds and insurance coverage, relative to
the resources needed.
In
developing the Prutection Score, Prudential conducted a financial wellness survey of
more than 5,000 employees who had medical insurance. Drawing on data from that
survey, as well as various government and industry sources, Prudential developed
national benchmark scores.
The
benchmark Prutection Scores indicate:
In
the event of loss of income due to premature death, the average employee would
be able to cover 71% of ongoing financial needs for a spouse’s or partner’s
lifetime and for children until adulthood.
In
the event of loss of income due to illness or injury, the average employee’s
household would be able to pay 71% of their monthly expenses using other income
sources, such as spousal or partner income and disability insurance benefits.
Faced
with out-of-pocket medical and non-medical expenses due to a critical illness
or accident, the average employee’s household is equipped to cover just 48% of
those expenses through liquid savings and insurance coverage.
While
about one-third of employees in the wellness survey score
high—90 or higher—in each risk category, only 4% score above 90 for all three
risks, and only 2% have scores of 100 or more for all three. Prudential also found
that for each risk category, Prutection Scores vary dramatically from one
demographic group to another.
“These
findings suggest that employers have a real opportunity to help improve their
employees’ financial health through targeted, needs-based financial wellness
programs, which educate employees about the financial risks they face and
provide the tools they need to help manage them,” Prudential says in a white paper called “Financial Wellness: The Next Frontier in Wellness Programs.”
Prudential surveyed
5,335 individuals between March 5 and April 2, 2014, using Harris Online Panel.