Products September 24, 2015

Buck Consultants Reveals Instant Pension Risk Monitor

Companies sponsoring defined benefit plans can work with Buck Consultants to map pension risks and strategies in real time.
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The new Pension Risk Navigator from Buck Consultants provides an advanced approach to live pension risk monitoring, helping pension fund officials to better seize market opportunities and reduce uncompensated risk.

Similar services generally offer monthly or quarterly updates, Buck Consultants says, making this offering a new option for plan sponsors seeking deeper insight into their pension assets and liabilities.

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Pension Risk Navigator is delivered as a software tool that analyzes funding and investment strategies, relying on up-to-the-minute market information. The tool analyzes proposed changes in contribution and investment strategies; assesses the effect of transferring plan liabilities, such as offering lump sums to certain plan participant groups; and illustrates the impact of closing or freezing the pension plan.

Pension Risk Navigator’s also includes a “Chart Your Course” feature, which allows employers to define goals and view estimates of the probability of attaining pension objectives. Alternative strategies can also be compared side by side to assist employers in optimizing their course of action.

Scot Martin, planning and risk management leader, wealth practice, Buck Consultants at Xerox, explains clients should find it easy to engage with the interactive software tool. Users log onto Buck’s Global Vision site and then access the Pension Risk Navigator portal.

More information is available on the Buck Consultants website. 

Participants September 24, 2015

Participants Welcome More Contact With Plan Providers

Younger investors are especially interested in learning more about other products.
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Seventy-four percent of retirement plan participants would welcome more information about financial products and services from their providers, according to Cogent Reports’ annual DC Participant Planscape.

This jumps to 80% among Millennials and Gen Xers. In addition, participants said they wouldn’t mind if the providers contacted them directly, rather than through their employer.

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“Since the average plan participant maintains a relationship with 1.7 former plans, providers are sitting on a gold mine,” says Sonia Sharigian, senior product manager at Cogent. However, engagement between defined contribution (DC) providers and participants is week. “Contact is typically limited to receiving quarterly statements or the occasional visit to a company’s website,” Sharigian says. “Our data suggest investors are not only open to but looking for more meaningful engagement with both current and former providers.”

One product participants would be interested in is rollover individual retirement accounts, particularly if the provider makes the process easy for participants, according to Linda York, vice president at Cogent. “Examples of firms that we see scoring well on this attribute are Fidelity, Vanguard, USAA, Wells Fargo and American Funds,” she says.

Cogent’s report is based on a survey of 4,638 plan participants that Market Strategies International conducted for the firm. All participants are currently contributing to a plan and have a balance of $5,000 or more in a prior plan. Information about how to purchase the full report is here.

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