CHICAGO (September 6, 2006) - There's reason to be excited to return to work after the long Labor Day weekend. Employees across the country will celebrate 401(k) Day on Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. Created by the Profit Sharing/401k Council of America, 401(k) Day is designed to celebrate and raise awareness about the benefits of saving for retirement by participating in profit sharing and 401(k) plans. To make the day a true success, PSCA has created an innovative, fun, and useful program to help employers educate their employees about their 401(k) plans. Colorful and eye-catching themes using different employee faces and profiles equal a broad demographic appeal. And, the tagline, "There's Life AFTER Work. Your 401(k) Can Get You There!" runs throughout a series of posters, brochures, mailers, online word games, and much more, all designed to educate employees about the benefits of participating in a 401(k) plan. Simple action-oriented messages are used to motivate and engage employees. This year PSCA added tools for targeting customizable communications for Plan Sponsors to overcome the excuses of not enrolling or saving at appropriate levels. In conjunction with 401(k) Day, PSCA is offering an additional benefit to its members for the celebration: participant online Web casts, titled "Trading Places: Are You Ready?" These Web casts offer informative insight into the benefits of participating in a company's 401(k) plan. In addition to motivating participation in 401(k) plans, the Web casts demonstrate the importance of starting to save early, how easy it is to contribute in a 401(k) plan, how 401(k) participation decreases participants' tax bills, and much more. These Web casts are available for PSCA member companies' participants in both English and Spanish. Additionally for member companies, PSCA also makes available all of the 401(k) Day print material in Spanish. Companies that participate in National 401(k) Day say the event is one more tool to focus the national mindset on saving for retirement. PSCA makes National 401(k) Day a simple but effective way for companies to promote 401(k) Day among their employees. "Our company has found 401(k) Day to be a great celebration of our unique ownership culture as we also have an ESOP," said Rae Champagne, special projects coordinator for Brookshire Grocery Co. "In addition to being a reminder to plan for the future, 401(k) Day lets participants know that the company sees saving as an important joint effort, provides an outlet to distribute educational materials, and increases the spirit of teamwork." "We know plan sponsors want to encourage their employees to save more for retirement, and that's why we each year we see more and more companies celebrating National 401(k) Day," said David Wray, PSCA President. "While we are suggesting the celebrations take place September 8 this year, we encourage employers to celebrate 401(k) day any day of the year, whenever it is most convenient for their organization. Every day can be 401(k) day." PSCA also provides a complete campaign including online participant Web casts in English and Spanish, posters, banners, flyers, interactive games, and more to companies and organizations that offer 457 plans to their employees. A 457 plan is a non-qualified tax-deferred compensation plan that works similar to a 401(k) plan. Tax code section 457 provides rules to govern all nonqualified deferred compensation plans of governmental employees and non-church controlled tax-exempt organizations. National 401(k) Day is supported by the nation's leading retirement plan providers and is sponsored in part by: ADP Retirement Services, Charles Schwab, FedEx Kinko's, Fidelity Investments, John Hancock Retirement Plan Services, MassMutual Financial Group, MFS Retirement Plan Services, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Principal Financial Group, and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. |
The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America (PSCA), a national non-profit association of 1,200 companies and their 6 million employees, advocates increased retirement security through profit sharing, 401(k) and related defined contribution programs to federal policymakers and makes practical assistance with profit sharing and 401(k) plan design, administration, investment, compliance and communication available to its members. PSCA, established in 1947, is based on the principle that “defined contribution partnership in the workplace fits today’s reality.” PSCA's services are tailored to meet the needs of both large and small companies with members ranging in size from Fortune 100 firms to small, entrepreneurial businesses. |