Employers who have established a retirement plan for their employees have taken an important first step in investing in their employees’ futures. Plan participant education is an essential aspect of the 401(k), and our approach to participant education is holistic and intentional.
Employees who choose to participate in the plan attend a series of individual meetings specifically designed to address key issues that help them gauge their retirement readiness. Each individual meeting is documented and the advisor and participant are held accountable to follow through on any commitments that were made.
We spend time with each participant to initially help determine his or her:
• Attitude toward money and investing
• Specific goals and objectives
• Risk tolerance and time horizon
We assist in establishing the parameters that determine how much a participant can and should defer as well as which investment option(s) should be used. We spend time talking about the time value of money, the importance of developing a budget, and the benefit of using an online budgeting tool.
To make sure we adequately guide participants who are interested in planning for their financial future, we contract with the company a specific amount of hours each year when we are on-site to deliver education to participants. We believe employees who understand the importance of saving in their company sponsored plan make better employees who feel more confident about their future.
