EMPLOYEE MEETINGS AND BENEFIT FAIRS

Retirement Planning

"Very good enrollment work! Participation went up in my 401(k) plans with Spanish needs" ---Michael L. Storey, President Storey Financial Group

We conduct benefit meetings and assist with benefits fairs. We cover a number of benefits including health, retirement plan and flex spending accounts. Our education specialists go one step further in helping employees value their benefits by positioning the benefit in a way that is appealing to the culture.

For example, in our bilingual retirement plan education seminars we focus on overcoming the obstacles to participation that are inherent in the culture. These include a lack of trust in financial institutions, conservative attitudes about investing, and overall lack of understanding of how a retirement plan and investments work. We focus on the value that the retirement has for the welfare of the family, which is so important in the Hispanic culture, and how affordable it is to participate.

We can use your provider’s materials or our own culturally sensitive Power Point Presentations for your meeting, which can be customized with your company name and benefit particulars. We can also provide custom payroll stuffers and posters to help promote your meeting. Contact us with the details of your meeting(s).

Healthcare and other benefits

As health care costs escalate and employers are forced to scale down their share of the bill, employee morale and loyalty suffer. It is important to discuss the issues leading to increased costs and sharing the burden with employees in conversational Spanish. We help employees value their employer, by discussing the overall benefits package and how it compares to the industry to ease concerns and promote loyalty.

We have had good results with Flex Spending accounts as Latinos see the benefit of pre-tax saving for fixed expenses. We share that their employer pays a certain amount to bring this benefit to them. With their tight budgets, we find that every little bit helps.

We can translate provider information or provide interpretation services for your meeting or Benefits Fair.

TARGETED COMMUNICATIONS

Retirement Planning Communications "One size does NOT fit all"

While Safe Harbor plans and automatic enrollment may or may not be an option for your company, a custom education campaign and bilingual one-on-one guidance may still be the best value in bolstering and maintaining enrollment and deferrals in your retirement plan.

The Challenge

It is estimated that only 2 out of 5 Americans are ready for retirement and the retirement deficit could reach $45 billion by 2030. Successful communication strategies incorporate the specific needs of the employee base and focus on retirement readiness to help them achieve a better future.

Many plan sponsors with a large Spanish-speaking demographics struggle with the impact of low participation and deferrals. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos are United States' fastest-growing minority yet only 1 in 4 Latinos are participating in their company’s sponsored plans.

Challenges to participating inherent in the culture include a distrust of financial institutions and very conservative attitudes about investing, yet a greater obstacle to participation is the perception that Latinos can’t afford to participate or are just not interested in participating.

On the contrary, in our experience Latinos have a very strong savings ethic and a desire to provide for their family. This is evidenced by the billions of dollars sent to other countries and the extraordinary growth of money transfer businesses. In our own experience we have achieved results in the 80-90% participation range in companies with a large Hispanic workforce.

The Research

Effective communications can add tremendous value to a corporation. Recent research by Watson Wyatt has linked enhanced communication to reduced employee turnover and significantly higher shareholder returns. Effective communications about a company’s retirement plan also makes an enormous difference in the plan’s perceived value.

The Watson Wyatt Retirement Attitude Survey notes that in many cases enhancing the communications program is just as effective but much less expensive than the company match in increasing employees’ appreciation of their retirement program. Employees were more than twice as likely to be attracted to a company that had a high communication of its DC/401(K) plan (11% for communication versus 26.1% for communication).

The study also found that a good communications program has a higher impact in employee retention than employee attraction. Employees at firms said effective communication has a meaningful impact, significantly increasing employees’ desire to stay put (45% vs. 23%).

The recent public policy study conducted in partnership with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and La Raza—Retirement Security for Latinos, June 2005--notes "Since Latinos have specific financial education needs and financial choices a "one size-fits-all" approach to pension plan counseling is not the best approach to raising their financial knowledge."

TARGETED COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS

Our Targeted Personalized Communications approach focuses on the needs of ALL employees, whether they are participating or not, with a custom campaign that focuses on retirement readiness for each group. The campaign consists of on-site and mail communications. However, your company can choose to do mail or on-site alone, depending on your needs and your budget. Our campaign can also compliment provider standard materials and fill in the gaps to obtain maximum results.

Mail Campaign

Our mail campaign is a completely customized communication campaign at the EMPLOYEE level. Our clients report that it is very useful and unique. The campaign interfaces with your provider’s record keeping system and provides electronic feedback and analysis of effectiveness. We can customize the message for each employee with his or her specific information. It is not generic or all-inclusive like many of the campaigns that are used at the plan level.

This type of customization works very well with the bilingual one-on-one meetings we hold with the employees. Also, from a fiduciary standpoint, we document and track the campaigns to show that every effort was made to educate all the employees whether or not they show up to a meeting. It also reaches all remote employees and sales representatives. Download TCP Process for details, examples of feedback files and samples of pieces that can be customized.

On-Site Campaign

Our on-site campaigns are designed for the specific needs of your employee base. For example, one of our recent campaigns "Leave No Employee Behind" focused on certain groups that have specific needs in getting on board their retirement plan. It also focused on those needing more help to catch up and stay on track. However, we will analyze your particular situation and design a custom campaign to meet your goals.

Young People and those living paycheck to paycheck

We provide tools to help young people make the right spending and savings decisions. We help them find the dollars to save by positioning the plan as a great "savings" tool. What they choose today will broaden or reduce their options tomorrow. Topics include:

• Making the right choices today will make all the difference tomorrow
• Some expenses are unavoidable, others have opportunity costs
• You don’t have to give up doing things now that make life worth living, you just have to be balanced with savings
• The good news is, time is on your side!

Mid-Lifers and Pre-retirees

We address the needs of this group who are behind with new strategies to catch up and optimize savings opportunities. These are employees that are participating and deferring but may NOT be on track or may be in the pre-retirement phase. These employees need assistance in the following ways:

• Changing asset allocation and/or risk tolerance to improve chances of meeting goals
• Using College savings plans as part of a financial plan
• Maximizing out on all savings avenues including catch-up contribution and IRAs
• Looking at other aspects of living longer, e.g. factoring in health care costs
• Locking in poor returns via CDs
• Withdrawing too much or too little during retirement

The Latino Group

According to The Retirement Security Project July 2005 "Since Latinos have specific financial education needs and financial choices a "one-size-fits-all" approach to pension plan counseling is not the best approach to raising their financial knowledge." In fact, only 1 in 4 Latinos are participating in their company’s sponsored plans.

What makes all the difference in reaching our group is being committed to providing culturally centered communications that focus on the value of the retirement plan to the family, which is so important in our culture, dispelling the myths about financial institutions, discussing openly and honestly how investments work and why it makes sense to invest despite the risks.

Trust grows as employees understand why an employer matches, the portability of the plan, and that their money is invested by companies with strong financial backing, in recognizable names like Coca Cola, Exxon and Wal-Mart. Add to this consistency and one-on-one guidance which fosters a relationship and trust over time and you’ve got a loyal, committed and grateful investor! Our seminars address the following with customized presentations and materials:

• Lack of trust in the systems and in the financial markets
• Very conservative attitudes about investing and over-reacting to market declines
• Lack of understanding about how retirement plans and investments work
• Needs the message to be relevant to need to take care of their family
• Need to understand more in depth how the system works: Why the employer matches, where the money goes, review the portability feature

Our Materials

Targeted Personalized Communications (TPC)

The TPC Process provides tools for helping fiduciaries fulfill their responsibilities and encourages employees to help themselves. Information at the employee level is downloaded from the provider’s record-keeping system and is analyzed to create this custom mail campaign. The Plan Utilization Analysis is the beginning point in the process and the Communications Effectiveness Analysis give us the result at the end of the campaign. Download TCP for more details on how the process works and samples of reports and customizable pieces. Here is a summary of the steps:

Step 1- Analyze data to select and refine segmentation strategies
Step 2- Select (or customize) both the appropriate message and campaign materials for each segment
Step 3- Personalize (incorporate each employee’s data) and distribute the messages appropriately (Mail, Meetings, Email, Web)
Step 4- Analyze participants’ behavior to determine the effectiveness of the communication process (message, vehicle and delivery)
Step 5- Create appropriate follow-up messages, programs and campaigns
Step 6- The process is repeated, focusing more closely on unresponsive demographic segments

Culturally Sensitive Materials

Our culturally sensitive materials in conversational Spanish include posters, payroll stuffers, Power Point Presentations and interactive Web tools to ensure the success of the bilingual campaign. Materials are customized with specific plan information and details of the upcoming campaign. The materials use vibrant colors and graphics and tangible themes designed for the new investor that appeal to the culture and the sense of community. Our materials address concerns and questions like:

• Why would my employer want to match?
• Can my employer take the money back?
• Can I take my money with me wherever I go?
• What if something happens to me?
• Can I leave it to my children?
• Can I lose my money?
• How do investments work?

Materials Samples

WEB SOLUTIONS

"I have gone through the whole content and thought it was very well done. It is the kind of information that all our employees can use," Tom Atwood, Employee Benefits Manager, AGL Resources (The gas company of Atlanta, GA)

Are you being asked by prospective or existing clients for bilingual Web-based tools? If you are in the sales trenches, every little bit helps in getting and retaining clients!!

We provide the competitive advantage you need with our powerful bilingual retirement planning Web tutorial that can be customized with your logo and company information. It can be accessed via a link or reside directly on your server. Users can easily switch from English to Spanish and vice-versa from any point, and have access to a comprehensive glossary and interactive tools. View Program Demo or contact us for access information to view entire program.

Here are some features of our bilingual program:

• User-friendly navigation and quick loading time
• Creative charts and graphs that make it easy to grasp financial concepts
• Playful, with animated graphics and culturally humorous quotes
• Interactive tools including risk assessment questionnaire and calculator
• Optimized asset allocation models
• Glossary of financial terms
• Regulatory updates and software upgrades
• Server independent software

By licensing the software, you can use the content for all your communication needs as well as in your marketing and sales efforts -the license is non-exclusive and non-transferable.

Web site

The annual subscription includes hosting, administration, regulatory updates, upgrades, content development, technical support, and tracking tools to measure use. We can host the Web content and create a password-protected link to the program, or create a customized link with your company information.