Products November 12, 2020

Voya Introduces Digital Personalized Budgeting Tool

The company says it hopes to enable people to create a monthly budget for spending and saving, including emergency funds.

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As Voya Financial continues to add to its digital retirement and financial wellness tools, it has announced an online, interactive budgeting calculator. Voya’s aim is to enable people to create a monthly budget for spending and saving, including emergency funds.

Voya says the budget takes a 50/30/20 approach, whereby Voya recommends that people use 50% of their after-tax income for basic needs, such as housing, utilities, health care, child care, etc. The 30% should be spent on wants, such as entertainment, dining, hobbies and splurges. And the remaining 20% is for saving, which includes for retirement, in an emergency savings fund and for other goals, such as vacations and travel.

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“At Voya, we understand that creating a budget is an important foundational step when it comes to achieving overall financial wellness,” says Amy Vaillancourt, senior vice president, workplace solutions and experience at Voya Financial. “We also understand that being financially well can mean different things to different individuals. But our goal is to help everyone achieve a state of mental well-being where individuals feel they have control over their current finances, are prepared for the unexpected and have confidence in their financial future, which is why creating a budget can be so valuable.”

Voya research has found that workers expect their employers’ retirement websites to offer many financial wellness solutions and make it easy for them to take action, such as making changes to their retirement plan or seeing future income projections. Voya says the new calculator can help people create a balanced budget based on their unique needs and priorities.

Users can download the results from the calculator and easily share them with family members or a financial professional. As well, the tool includes tips on balancing a budget and stretching one’s income. It is available in both English and Spanish and can be accessed at Voya.com.

Compliance November 12, 2020

DOL Announces Final Rule on PEP Registration

The rule is in line with DOL’s proposed rulemaking that it announced in August and streamlines the electronic process by using the same system as the Form 5500.

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The Department of Labor (DOL)’s much anticipated final rule on registration requirements for pooled employer plans (PEPs), pursuant to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, has just been announced.

The SECURE Act amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to establish PEPs. These plans are administered by pooled plan providers (PPPs).

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“Pooled employer plans will give employers, especially small, unrelated employers, a way of offering their employees a workplace retirement savings option with reduced burdens and costs,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson. “This final rule lays the groundwork for a sensible registration process so that providers can get pooled plans up and running.”

PEPs may start operating on January 1, 2021, but their pooled plan providers must first register with the secretary of labor and the secretary of the Treasury at least 30 days prior, which they can do electronically by submitting the new EBSA Form PR. The new electronic filing system will be available starting November 25 at www.efast.dol.gov/. Sometime within the coming days, an informational version of the new Form PR and instructions will be made available at www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa.

However, between November 25 and January 31, the requirement to register at least 30 days prior to operating a PEP is waived, provided registration occurs no later than the start of the plan.

Plans must also submit supplemental filings regarding specific reportable events and a final filing after the provider’s last PEP has been terminated and ceased operations.

The DOL first announced its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on these registration requirements in August. The proposal said the EBSA believes the most efficient approach is to integrate the Form PR registration filing process into the current electronic filing system that employee benefit plans use to file their Form 5500 Annual Return.

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