Products November 4, 2008

Wachovia Extends Participant Call Center Hours

November 4, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Wachovia Retirement Services has temporarily extended customer service call center hours to help participants "during this time of financial markets volatility."
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According to a press release, Wachovia says that, in addition to its regular call center hours of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time, the retirement call center will also be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time on Saturdays, effective this weekend.

Wachovia says that over the last 60 days, its retirement call center has seen an almost 30% increase in call volume on a year-over-year basis. According to a press release, participants have been calling to rebalance portfolios to more conservative fund options, and in some cases to seek a distribution, a loan or change in savings rate.

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“These are extraordinary times for the individual investor, and we want to be more available so we can help them through their thought process as they take steps to adjust to market volatility,” said Joe Ready, head of Wachovia Retirement Services. “We feel it’s important to respond to the increased volume of calls by expanding the timeframe for participants to make inquiries and changes to their accounts outside of the traditional Monday through Friday work week.”

Consultation Services Update

In early September, Wachovia Retirement Services began offering a free retirement consultation to participants, which is accessed by calling an 800 number (see  Wachovia Offers Free Consultation to Retirement Plan Participants ).   According to Wachovia, during the month of September, of those participants who were offered the consultation, roughly a third agreed to speak with a retirement consultant and, of those who agreed to a consultation, 11% were on track for retirement, which is the same figure as those who accepted the retirement consultation during the pilot offering, according to the firm.

Wachovia Retirement Services administers over 6,700 retirement plans, manages $100.9 billion assets under administration and serves 2.2 million pensioners.

Opinions November 3, 2008

IMHO: Ballot 'Initiative'

On Tuesday, the nation will go to the polls (those who haven't voted early or absentee, anyway) and make a decision that has obsessed political junkies and pollsters alike for far too long.
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For all the talk of “hope” and “change,” this extended election cycle has offered little of either, IMHO.

Now, I realize that there are those among you who are highly enamored of one candidate or the other – or at least highly un-enamored of the other.   But, IMHO, if you don’t have some concerns about how both of the candidates would conduct themselves in office on at least some issues, you haven’t been paying attention.  

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Nonetheless, our nation’s tried and tested method of screening and selecting representatives has, with all its flaws, done its job.  

Now it’s our turn.  

Come Tuesday, we have a real choice to make.   And this one – more than most, perhaps more than any in my lifetime – feels like a “game changer.”  

As individual voters, it may not feel like we can have much impact, particularly if your state reliably goes “blue” or “red” (whether you do or not).   However, the reality is that our votes do make a difference – if not in the result, then at least in the margin of the result; not just in terms of who sits in the Oval Office, but the tenor of voices on Capitol Hill, the influences in state legislatures, the composition of that local school board….

These are the people who will set in motion policies and practices that can have an impact that can, for good or ill, be felt far beyond their terms of office.

You owe it to yourself, to those you love, to those who have fought and died to preserve your right – your privilege – your responsibility – to vote.

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