Products October 17, 2016

T. Rowe Price Releases Retirement Videos for Women

Through seven short videos, 23 women share their real-life experiences and challenges as well as advice about how women can take control of their finances.
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In recognition of National Retirement Security Week, T. Rowe Price released “Women on Retirement: Stories to Empower,” a seven-part, documentary-style video series created to help women navigate the unique challenges they face when saving for retirement.

Women often experience competing priorities and barriers when it comes to their financial future, including lower wages, a longer life expectancy, and fewer years in the workforce compared to their male counterparts, T. Rowe Price notes.

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T. Rowe Price’s 2015 Retirement Spending and Saving study found that Millennial women had significantly less money saved in their 401(k)s―a median account balance of $10,600 compared to $22,200 for Millennial men. Additionally, the study found that women were contributing less of their salaries to their 401(k)s―a median of 5%, compared to 7% for men.

T. Rowe Price’s 2016 Parents, Kids & Money study asked parents how knowledgeable they felt about money and investing. Women were significantly less likely to say they felt knowledgeable about money (67% compared to 78% of men). The difference was even more extreme when women were asked about investing, with only 35% of women saying they felt knowledgeable, versus 62% of men.

Through seven short videos, 23 women share their real-life experiences and challenges as well as advice about how women can take control of their finances. Each video is tailored to a specific topic or issue often faced by women, including investing, retirement saving advice for Millennials and single women, and how to balance finances when faced with conflicting priorities.

Aimee DeCamillo, head of T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services, Inc., says: “National Retirement Security Week is an opportunity for companies to evaluate how well they are preparing their employees for retirement. Women in particular have unique challenges that employers can address through plan design and education.”

The video series may be found here.

Benefits October 17, 2016

Mercer Calls on Employers to Lead the Change in Health Benefits

Mercer believes employers should have better influence on the health care marketplace because of their purchasing power.
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Mercer says that today, stakeholders other than employers―i.e. health plan providers, the government―define the rules for employer-sponsored health care benefits, and it would like to change that around.

Mercer believes employers should have better influence because of their purchasing power.

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In a new publication,  “Employer-led healthcare transformation: Vitals for a better tomorrow,” Mercer notes that employers today are faced with many complex, unprecedented challenges that impact their ability to deliver an effective system, including difficulty navigating a complex and fragmented system; soaring costs for employers and employees; and significant effort needed to manage a high-performing plan.

According to Mercer, employers can lead the transformation by addressing four key themes: “Pay for value, drive to quality, personalize the experience, embrace disruption.”

Pay for value – Aligning reimbursement with value, not volume.

Drive to quality – Delivering the right care at the right time, in the right setting, error free.

Personalize the experience – Leveraging better data and technology to engage employees in the right behaviors, every day.

Embrace disruption – Injecting change into the system, with internal stakeholders and external partners, to be future-ready.

“Employers are pivotal players in today’s health care system, yet their role has remained remarkably passive,” says Sharon Cunninghis, North American Leader of Mercer’s Health business. “In fact, nearly two-thirds of all insured coverage is employer-provided, which translates into a nearly one trillion dollar annual spend. The time has come for employers to work with other key stakeholders to translate this potential leverage into actual market transformation―and we see our point of view as the roadmap.”

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