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Products May 1, 2014
Portal Offers Education to Equity Comp. Plan Participants
May 1, 2014 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – UBS Wealth Management Americas launched an online portal that provides education about equity awards and access to financial planning advice for equity compensation plan participants.
Reported by Kevin McGuinness
The Knowledge Center is a portal for corporate employees in the United States and other countries throughout the world who participate in equity compensation plans. It is available through UBS One Source, a website for equity plan participants to view consolidated account information, as well as model and transact equity awards.
The center contains a broad range of materials tailored to individual needs. The information is personalized to each participant by award type, experience with awards, level of financial knowledge, life stage and financial concerns. While the full array of educational materials is available to all participants, the personalized sections recommend features based on the participant’s needs and interests.
Through partnerships with subject matter experts, UBS created fact sheets, guides and more about a variety of topics, ranging from the basics of what each type of equity award entails to how equity can be used to reach goals—such as saving for retirement or funding a child’s education—and the role equity can play during different life stages. In addition to articles and other reading materials, the center also includes multimedia content such as videos and podcasts.
“The Knowledge Center is the result of a year-long development effort that combined significant research into the educational needs of plan participants, with best practices in adult learning preferences,” says Michael Barry, head of UBS Equity Plan Advisory Services (EPAS), based in New York.
“As investors, we have information from many sources to sort through, and it helps greatly to have useful content right in front of us rather than having to dig for it,” says Dan Ferretti, a compensation operations manager for one of EPAS’s long-standing Fortune 500 clients. “The first time you go to the center, you answer a few simple questions to create your profile, and then content that is most relevant to your needs is prominently displayed and easy to find.”
UBS Wealth Management Americas provides advice-based solutions through financial advisers who deliver a fully integrated set of products and services specifically designed to address the needs of ultra-high net worth and high net worth individuals and families. It includes the domestic U.S. business, the domestic Canadian business and international business booked in the United States.