Vanguard Retirement Plan Access Participant education programs to help maximize employee engagement
Online access The most current retirement planning, saving, and investing information is available to participants anytime, anywhere through these valuable online tools: Participant resource center (vanguard.com/resourcecenter) is an online resource center designed for participants to assist with enrolling, saving, and investing in their plan. All the tools are aligned with our Enroll-Invest-Save program to meet the specific needs of your employees. Participants can view videos, articles, and online calculators to help get answers to such important questions as: What benefits does the plan offer? How much should I be saving? Am I investing appropriately? How much can I withdraw each year in retirement? Plan sponsor and financial professional resource center (vanguard.com/sbpe) is an online tool providing plan sponsors and financial professionals with the resources to help participants with retirement readiness. You have access to videos, presentations, brochures, and online materials that you can easily share with participants. These microsites are also accessible through the participant website at my.vanguardplan.com, and the plan sponsor website at sponsor.vanguardplan.com.
At Vanguard, we value the importance of participant education. Your participants, after all, have a diverse set of retirement goals and our philosophy is to partner with you to help them achieve those goals. That s why we re constantly designing and developing participant education and communication programs that encourage your employees to: Enroll in your plan. Save enough to achieve their retirement goals. Invest in funds appropriate for their age and risk tolerance levels. Sponsors and financial professionals can leverage these targeted educational materials to create a personalized experience for participants specific to their life stage and financial planning needs. A companion video presentation that walks employees through the enrollment process. It can be loaded to your company s intranet, used during enrollment presentations, or viewed by employees at their computers. A great plan for your future presentation includes talking points for sponsors and financial professionals to emphasize that employees are responsible for planning for their retirement and your company-sponsored plan may be the best place to save to help achieve their retirement goals. Enroll Enroll in Your Plan is an educational program designed to provide employees with information that can aid their decision to join your retirement plan. Enrollment usability studies have shown that nonparticipants view retirement investing as a difficult decision, and they often don t know how to get started. Vanguard Retirement Plan Access features Enroll communications, reinforcing the primary message that joining the plan is easy and that joining sooner can offer greater retirement readiness down the road. The target audience for Enroll in Your Plan includes new hires, newly eligible employees, and employees in plans newly converted to Vanguard. Enroll in Your Plan helps guide participants through the key enrollment steps that can lead to a more secure retirement. Your employees will get the help they need to learn the benefits of enrolling in the plan, determine how much to save, select the right investment mix, designate their beneficiary, and much more. Enroll materials include: A booklet personalized for your employees showing the benefits of saving for retirement. They ll find plan-specific details, such as performance summaries and fund fact sheets, and an overview of key investment concepts. Targeted communications personalized from you to your participants include a direct mailer that introduces employees to your retirement plan, with personalized examples of how easy it is to enroll. Essential messages focus on the many reasons why your plan is a valuable place to invest explaining tax savings, automatic deductions, and other retirement plan benefits. Customized materials keep your employees thinking about your retirement plan which can help drive participation and enrollment. Materials such as posters, flyers, and statement stuffers can be displayed and distributed to ensure your employees are always aware of your plan and its many benefits. Total Benefit Communications, an Ascensus company, offers an optional, fee-based service that gives your employees a hands-on experience through a network of regional education specialists focused on employee benefit communication and education services. Services include on-site enrollment meetings, webinars, and multilingual/translation services.
Special reports: Participation Rates by Age Band. Your quarterly Planillustrator report shows vital statistics that let you assess plan performance and help you improve in key areas such as participation rates. Are your young employees enrolling? Is 80% a good participation rate? At a glance, you ll be able to answer these key questions and see how your plan stacks up a key first step in always making sure that you and your participants have a best-in-class retirement plan. Then use the Enroll in Your Plan tools to meet your participation goals. Save When it comes to saving for retirement, some participants are saving adequately, but others may need a little help to get where they need to be. The Save program is designed to educate participants about the value of saving more, to help them recognize what might be an appropriate savings rate for their circumstances, and to get them to increase their savings rate today. Communications in the Save program are targeted to all your plan participants and reinforce several key messages. Participants may be surprised by the power of compounding and the tremendous impact that saving more and saving earlier can have on their retirement account. They ll learn why Vanguard suggests a savings rate of 12% to 15% for retirement, including any employer contributions. And participants who need to catch up will find the tips they need to get their retirement savings on track.
Save materials include: Set your retirement goals now! This retirement planning guide on Vanguard s participant website features an interactive tool to help your participants build a better retirement strategy based on realistic expectations and goals. much to save, how to make saving easier, and how saving more or less will affect their paycheck today and their ability to enjoy their retirement tomorrow. Save more today and help your retirement plan grow. This presentation for plan sponsors and financial professionals features talking points on the key issues that investors need to consider. Participants will learn about three key topics: How Targeted communications. Personalized from you to your participants, these communications provide tips that can help participants save more and analyze how they re doing on the road to retirement readiness. These educational pieces encourage participants to increase their savings rate to at least the company match, offer a personalized savings planner that shows balance growth over time, and provide a personalized gap analysis (along with hypothetical savings examples and steps to consider) that can help with their retirement planning. Special reports: Average Deferral Percentage by Age Band. Your quarterly Planillustrator report provides key statistics such as the chart below that shows the average savings deferral percentage by age band that help you assess plan effectiveness and gauge how your participants are doing as they prepare for retirement. Vanguard suggests saving 12% to 15% (including employer contributions) to be best prepared for retirement. Are your participants hitting that savings target? If not, use the Save tools to help get your participants saving.
Invest At Vanguard, our core purpose is to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. The Invest program is designed to help your participants achieve investment success by focusing on the fundamentals of investing. Invest program materials contain an overview of three asset classes (stocks, bonds, and cash). Instead of responding to daily fund performance and market fluctuations, participants are urged to take a long-term perspective and to focus on what they can control when saving for retirement how much to save, their investment mix, and investing costs. Aimed at novice investors and employees newly eligible for your retirement plan, the Invest program can help participants identify goals and time horizons, evaluate their tolerance for risk, create the right investment mix, and monitor their investments. Invest materials include: Smarter investing begins with the basics. This presentation helps participants understand key investment terms, choose their investment strategy, and make the most of your plan s resources. The presentation helps sponsors and financial professionals deliver an investment orientation seminar for participants with little to no investment experience, as well as for more experienced participants who seek a better understanding of investment terminology. Create a solid retirement plan in a few easy steps. In this presentation, participants learn that there are two main questions to consider when creating a retirement plan: How much money do I need to live comfortably? And, how do I devise a plan to help reach that goal? As sponsors and financial professionals share this presentation, participants will get answers as well as some tips that will help them formulate a plan that can lead to a more secure retirement. Webinars. Vanguard presents quarterly webinars for participants on investment and retirement topics. Recent webinars have covered everything from asset allocation and portfolio diversification to target-date funds and economic conditions. These webinars are a quick, convenient way for participants to tap into Vanguard s thought leadership on retirement investing. Tools for selecting and managing plan investments. Available through Morningstar Retirement Manager SM through Morningstar Associates, LLC a leading provider of investment advisory services to the retirement industry this online tool provides investor education and objective advice to help your employees navigate and understand their options. Features include: Learning Station: Maintains planning calculators, articles on investment concepts, and fund research online at no cost. Managed by You: Creates personal portfolio allocation recommendations and targeted savings rates at no cost. Managed by Morningstar: Creates personalized portfolio allocation recommendations and provides ongoing account management with a level of fiduciary protection for a nominal fee to the participant. (Optional)
Special reports: Average Investment Election by Age Band and Fund. Plan analytics from your quarterly Planillustrator report such as the chart below that shows average investment election by age band and fund can help you determine whether your participants have a retirement portfolio that s appropriately diversified among the major asset classes. Are your young participants taking enough investment risk? Your pre-retirees too much? Are too many participants at 0% or 100% equity extremes? You ll find out quickly so you can get the help you need to address any plan challenges. Then help your participants act on long-term focused investing principles using the Invest tools. At Vanguard, we re committed to participant education. We help plan sponsors and financial professionals by providing relevant, smart, and accessible solutions to guide participants toward a more secure retirement. Our Enroll, Save, and Invest communications are designed to engage participants in the serious business of planning for retirement by making their decisions as easy as possible. For more information about Vanguard Retirement Plan Access, please contact Vanguard (888-684-401k) or your financial professional.
P.O. Box 2900 Valley Forge, PA 19482-2900 For more information about Vanguard funds, visit institutional.vanguard.com or call 888-684-401k to obtain a prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information about a fund are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing. Investments in target-date funds, such as Vanguard Target Retirement Funds, are subject to the risks of their underlying funds. The year in the fund name refers to the approximate year (the target date) when an investor in the fund would retire and leave the workforce. The fund will gradually shift its emphasis from more aggressive investments to more conservative ones based on its target date. An investment in target-date funds is not guaranteed at any time, including on or after the target date. Morningstar Retirement Manager SM is offered by and is the property of Morningstar Associates, LLC, a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. The Morningstar name and logo are registered marks of Morningstar, Inc. Investment advice generated by Retirement Manager is based on information provided and limited to the investment options available in the defined contribution plan. Projections and other information regarding the likelihood of various retirement income and/or investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual results, and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time. Morningstar Associates LLC is not affiliated with Vanguard Marketing Corporation, The Vanguard Group, Inc., or any of its affiliates. Morningstar Associates LLC is not affiliated with Ascensus or any of its affiliates. All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Vanguard Marketing Corporation (VMC) is the distributor of the Vanguard funds and a subsidiary of The Vanguard Group, Inc. VMC is a registered broker-dealer, member of FINRA and SIPC. Retirement plan recordkeeping and administrative services are provided by The Vanguard Group, Inc. (VGI). VGI has entered into an agreement with Ascensus, Inc., to provide certain plan recordkeeping and administrative services on its behalf. Ascensus is not affiliated with VMC, The Vanguard Group, Inc., or any of its affiliates. Ascensus is a registered trademark of Ascensus, Inc. Total Benefit Communications is a registered trademark of Total Benefit Communications, LLC. Total Benefit Communications is an Ascensus company. TBC services are offered under the terms of a separate agreement between the plan sponsor and TBC. 2015 The Vanguard Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor. SMPEBRO 032015