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2024 PLANSPONSOR Roadmap:
Financial Wellness

A November 2023 survey from the American Psychological Association found 63% of Americans report that money is a somewhat or significant source of stress. Stress can take a toll on the physical health of employees and hinder productivity. These consequences and the effect of financial issues on long-term goal progress, such as the ability to save for retirement, are why an increasing number of plan sponsors are focusing on the financial wellness of employees.

This PLANSPONSOR Roadmap focuses on financial wellness. It will equip you with the insights needed to develop or update your financial wellness program for employees. You’ll hear from plan sponsors, advisers and providers about successful financial wellness strategies, and you’ll come away with resources and checklists to guide you on your own journey of implementing important benefits.

agenda

Thursday

March 7, 2024

  1. 10:30a.m. – 11:30a.m. EST

    Defining Financial Wellness
    Financial wellness can mean different things to different people. What does it mean for your employee base? How do you determine what your employees need? Employers should establish the goal they are trying to reach for their workforce, and they can target different benefits to different employee groups. Get all the information you need to decide what financial wellness is as a starting point.
    Moderator
    Rebecca Moore, Managing Editor of Custom Content, ISS Media
    Panelists
    Sharon Kacsits,
    Director Human Resources – North America, COFCO International
    Jake Spiegel, Research Associate, Employee Benefit Research Institute
    Kerry Woods Tapia, VP, Participant Education and Engagement, SageView Advisory Group
    Christine Chiulli, Vice President, Financial Wellness, Fidelity Investments

  2. 11:30a.m. - 12:00p.m. EST

    Break

  3. 12:00p.m. – 1:00p.m. EST

    Elements of an Effective Program
    Financial wellness benefits can range from a resource library to one-on-one employee financial coaching. While they can be separate from other benefits, recent legislation has enabled plan sponsors to incorporate some financial benefits into retirement plan design. Employers may want what is best for employees, but sometimes benefits budgets determine what elements to offer. Experts will discuss the various available options.
    Moderator
    Amy Resnick, Executive Editor, PLANSPONSOR
    Panelists
    Joshua Ulmer, Managing Director and Institutional Consulting Director, Graystone Consulting from Morgan Stanley
    Adelia Soremekun, Senior Director of Benefits, Health and Wellness, The Jackson Laboratory
    Kelli Send, Co-Founder, Senior Vice President – Financial Wellness Services, Francis
    Rebecca Liebman, CEO and Co-Founder, LearnLux

  4. 1:00p.m. – 2:00p.m. EST

    Lunch

  5. 2:00p.m. – 3:00p.m. EST

    Implementation and Communication
    Once you’ve determined the goal for your financial wellness program and the elements to include, how do you implement it? Hear from plan sponsors and advisers about steps they’ve taken to successfully implement financial wellness programs for employees. Learn how to communicate the benefits to encourage employees to use them and how to measure success.
    Moderator
    Alex Ortolani, Editor, PLANADVISER, Digital
    Panelists
    Jay Schmitt, Partner, Strategic Benefits Advisors
    Jenna Witherbee, Investment Advisor Representative, 401k Plan Professionals
    Richard C. Yezzi, Jr., Vice President of Operations, JX Enterprises, Inc.

speakers

  • Christine Chiulli

    Christine Chiulli

    Vice President, Financial Wellness
    Fidelity Investments
    Christine Chiulli
    Vice President, Financial Wellness
    Fidelity Investments

    Christine Chiulli is a vice president responsible for delivering financial wellness capabilities for Fidelity’s Workplace Investing team, a unit of Fidelity Investments responsible for helping employers lead a successful benefits program.
    Prior to joining Fidelity in 1996, Ms. Chiulli worked in the health care industry gaining expertise in insurance carrier and payroll administration. Ms. Chiulli has more than 25 years of experience in defined contribution, defined benefit, health & welfare, financial wellness offerings and administration.
    Ms. Chiulli received her Bachelor of Arts from Stonehill College.

  • Sharon Kacsits

    Sharon Kacsits

    Director Human Resources - North America
    COFCO International
    Sharon Kacsits
    Director Human Resources - North America
    COFCO International

    Sharon Kacsits is the Director of Human Resources for the North American region of COFCO International, a multi-flag, global agri-business with a six-continent supply chain and over $35 billion in annual revenues. COFCO International is a subsidiary of COFCO Corporation. Sharon has over 30 years of experience in Human Resources in various industries including steel, financial, automotive, food packaging and agricultural trading.

    Starting as a data analyst at Heidrick and Struggles in Chicago coding candidate resumes Sharon moved through differing HR roles at organizations such as Whirlpool Financial and Toyota Motor Manufacturing. She has worked in almost all areas of Human Resources during her career, including experience with M&A and divestitures, so is a true generalist. Sharon has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Psychology from De Paul University and a Master of Business (MBA) degree from the University of Indiana.

  • Rebecca Liebman

    Rebecca Liebman

    CEO and Co-Founder
    LearnLux
    Rebecca Liebman
    CEO and Co-Founder
    LearnLux

    Rebecca Liebman is the CEO and co-founder of LearnLux, the leading provider of workplace financial wellbeing that blends digital planning with one-on-one guidance from Certified Financial Planner™️ professionals. Founded in 2015, Rebecca has grown LearnLux from a startup to an established company serving clients across a variety of industries, Fortune 500 businesses, and global enterprises. Rebecca is on a mission to make financial wellbeing accessible in the workplace and create a better world through the power of technology. Rebecca has recently been honored with Forbes “30 Under 30,” Boston Business Journal “40 Under 40,” and Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” awards.

  • Jay Schmitt

    Jay Schmitt

    Partner
    Strategic Benefit Advisors
    Jay Schmitt
    Partner
    Strategic Benefit Advisors

    Launching his career as a retirement actuary, Jay gained firsthand experience with the complex technical aspects of defined benefit, defined contribution, health and group employee benefit programs.
    Benefits administration and systems to support a plan sponsor’s administrative activities quickly became an interest, and Jay spent several years developing and supporting customized administrative applications for large, complex clients. He also acquired valuable industry insight at Hewitt Associates and Northern Trust Retirement Consulting. Most recently, Jay served as Director of Client Services for a leading provider of employee benefits administration software.
    Jay earned a Masters of Actuarial Science from Georgia State University and a B.S. in Mathematics from Davidson College. Jay is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries.

  • Kelli Send

    Kelli Send

    Co-Founder, Senior Vice President – Financial Wellness Services
    Francis
    Kelli Send
    Co-Founder, Senior Vice President – Financial Wellness Services
    Francis

    With over 30 years of advising plan participants under her belt, Kelli Send has extensive financial wellness knowledge and oversees the firm’s financial wellness team. She is responsible for curriculum design and delivery, as well as the firm’s money coaching services. Under her leadership, the financial wellness team has won 15 Eddy Awards for excellence in retirement plan participant education programs.

    Kelli is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Professional (CFP) and has her Series 65 license and ERISA Fiduciary certification. She has a B.A. in Marketing from Michigan State University and an M.A. in Adult Education from Carroll University.

  • Adelia Soremekun

    Adelia Soremekun

    Senior Director, Total Rewards
    The Jackson Laboratory
    Adelia Soremekun
    Senior Director, Total Rewards
    The Jackson Laboratory

    Adelia Soremekun is a highly experienced HR professional dedicated to creating impactful and valuable experiences throughout the employee life cycle. With over 20 years of experience, including 14 years in HR administration, she currently serves as the Senior Director, Total Rewards at The Jackson Laboratory. Her in-depth knowledge and strategic approach has played pivotal roles in optimizing HR processes and enhancing employee satisfaction.

    Her expertise cover employee education, program and policy design for benefits, compensation, wellness, absence and general employee relations. She holds an MBA along with multiple certifications, including SHRM-CP, PHR, CPDM, and Global benefits.

    Adelia is the convener of CommonSense HR, a LinkedIn group.

  • Jake Spiegel

    Jake Spiegel

    Research Associate
    Employee Benefit Research Institute
    Jake Spiegel
    Research Associate
    Employee Benefit Research Institute

    Jake Spiegel is a Research Associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. He completed his undergraduate work in economics at Carnegie Mellon University and earned a master’s degree in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University.

    Previously, Jake worked for Morningstar on their public policy research team, where he wrote a first-of-its-kind evaluation of health savings accounts. He also conducted economic analyses to define and inform Morningstar’s institutional positions on proposed regulations, and drafted recommendations based on these analyses that advanced the interests of individual investors. Before joining Morningstar, he was a research analyst at HelloWallet, where he conducted research on personal finance and financial wellness issues, such as the relationship between student loan debt and retirement savings, and the extent to which households built up more debt than retirement savings during the Great Recession.

  • Joshua Ulmer

    Joshua Ulmer

    Managing Director and Institutional Consulting Director
    Graystone Consulting from Morgan Stanley
    Joshua Ulmer
    Managing Director and Institutional Consulting Director
    Graystone Consulting from Morgan Stanley

    Joshua Ulmer is a Managing Director and Institutional Consulting Director at Graystone Consulting from Morgan Stanley. As the practice leader of the Graystone Consulting – Pacific Mountain team, Joshua is charged with overseeing all aspects of the fiduciary consulting process and client experience. He has 20 years of industry experience and has been focused on retirement plan advisory/consulting for the last 18 years.

    Joshua received his Bachelor of Arts in Business & Economics from Lewis and Clark College in 2001. He went on to complete the Certified Investment Management Analyst program at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 2005. In 2010 he earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation after completing 3 years of study and examination. In 2012 he completed the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist designation through the College for Financial Planning and in 2014 the Risk Management professional Certificate program at the New York Institute of Finance. In March of 2020, Joshua enrolled in the flagship online business program at The Stanford Graduate School of Business, completing the LEAD certificate in June 2021.

  • Jenna Witherbee

    Jenna Witherbee

    Investment Advisor Representative
    401k Plan Professionals
    Jenna Witherbee
    Investment Advisor Representative
    401k Plan Professionals

    Jenna Witherbee is an Investment Advisor Representative with 401k Plan Professionals. Jenna joined 401k Plan Professionals in 2009 after obtaining a Finance degree from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. She also holds Series 7 through LPL Financial and Series 66 through 401k Plan Professionals and LPL Financial. She also has MN Insurance registrations and is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF). Jenna takes pride in providing experienced service to the small and mid-size clients including investment research and due diligence, group and individual employee education meetings, plan design guidance, fee benchmarking and vendor proposals.

  • Kerry Woods Tapia

    Kerry Woods Tapia

    VP, Participant Educations and Engagement
    SageView Advisory Group
    Kerry Woods Tapia
    VP, Participant Educations and Engagement
    SageView Advisory Group

    Kerry is responsible for providing leadership and strategic oversight for participant-level education. She is accountable for ensuring a successful education platform, from group-based education meetings to the participant web portal experience. Kerry’s primary objective is to drive positive financial outcomes for employees.

    Before joining SageView, Kerry spent twelve years in the retirement recordkeeping side of the financial services industry. Starting her career in the participant call center of Empower Retirement in 2010, she has since led several strategic initiatives, launching advanced products, RFP responses, and competitive intelligence. In her most recent role at Voya Financial, Kerry specialized in multiple employer solutions and worked with national consulting firms to enhance satisfaction rates on shared clients.

    Kerry has a Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Illinois University, and is FINRA Series 6 and 63 registered.

  • Rich Yezzi

    Rich Yezzi

    Vice President of Operations
    JX Enterprises, Inc.
    Rich Yezzi
    Vice President of Operations
    JX Enterprises, Inc.

    Rich Yezzi is the Vice President of Operations at JX Enterprises, Inc., a company comprised of 28 dealerships representing the Volvo, Peterbilt, Hino, Battle Motors and Kalmar brands; two finance companies; a leasing company, Alltrux Parts—a heavy and medium duty parts wholesale division; and more. Rich has had the privilege of holding several positions in his 24 years at the company, including General Manager, Controller, Director of Organizational Development and Vice President of Human Resources. Rich holds bachelor’s degrees in Business Management, Marketing, and Theater from Saint Mary’s University in Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

sponsors

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