2021 Signature Awards - Investment Education

This category is for communications to plan participants regarding investments, investment diversification, or investment changes, including programs that were successful in encouraging employees to take action on investments in their accounts, introducing new investment options, campaigns targeting pre-retirees who may have too much risk, or younger workers who may be too risk averse in their portfolios, etc.

1^st Place – GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Inc. with Compass Financial Partners and Prudential Retirement
GLOBALFOUNDRIES (“GF”) is the world’s leading specialty foundry, with more than 250 clients worldwide including many of the world’s largest semiconductor companies. GF has corporate offices based in Silicon Valley and manufacturing centers in Germany, Singapore, New York, and Vermont with more than 9,500 U.S. employees. The company needed to increase awareness and understanding of comprehensive investment and fee changes in their 401(k) plan among employees in multiple time zones. GF used their intranet site, live and recorded online meetings, print materials, and one-on-one retirement consultations to meet their goals. They utilized online training sessions for senior leadership and managers. As a technology company they leveraged technology to engage participants including scheduling software, multiple video conferencing solutions, survey and information collection software and a recorded video. The efforts resulted in a 90 percent increase in completion of the retirement income calculator. There was a 38 percent increase in deferral rates and an average deferral rate greater than 6 percent. The completion rate of the online financial assessment increased by 384 percent and visitors to the financial wellness resources increased by 30 percent. The judges felt that GF’s investment changes were thoughtfully rolled out. Their commitment to providing one-on-one sessions and extensive online training was impressive. There was good coordination with their provider’s online tools and resources. The changes were choreographed in a timely manner, with time taken to first educate their managers before addressing their participants.

2^nd Place – ABA Retirement Funds with Voya Financial
The ABA Retirement Funds Program (“Program”) was developed by the ABA Retirement Funds, an Illinois not-for-profit corporation started by the American Bar Association more than 55 years ago to provide full-service 401(k) plans to the legal community. The Program provides recordkeeping services to more than 4,200 retirement plans for 37,000 plan participants. With nearly 55 percent of participants aged 50 and older and 31 percent aged 60 and older, a “Retiree Menu” experience was added to help individuals nearing or in retirement simplify their investment decisions and provide education to help them plan their retirement. A new digital resource center called the Retiree Toolbox was created to house the information. Both print and electronic media were used to ensure all participants were reached. Specifically, these included a website landing page for the new investment path, website and statement messaging, a webinar, a recorded webcast, and blog articles. In the first two months the emails had high open rates and 437 users clicked to open the new Retiree Toolbox – 61 percent took action on the page 38 percent accessed the retirement planning guide. This campaign won because it was creative and thoughtful, covering all the basic communication channels including mentions of the changes in blogs and other company communications.