Cambia Health Solutions

Last year, Cambia Health Solutions, in Portland, Oregon, created a campaign to simplify its 401(k) plan’s investment menu, as well as lower its fees. Research has found that participants can become confused when there are too many mutual fund options in the investment menu, and, as a result, they may be inadequately diversified, explains William Bercek, manager of 401(k) program and compliance for National Employee Benefits Administration (NEBA), Cambia’s plan administrator for over 15 years. “That’s why we wanted to make our lineup more efficient,” he says. “We wanted to be very participant-focused. We’re always looking to lower fees if we can, so creating a better lineup allowed us to have better fees for participants.”

The nonprofit health care company—alongside NEBA and its recordkeeper, Fidelity, and adviser, Aon—reviewed and streamlined the active and passive investment menu from 18 to nine funds without eliminating any investment categories. The change provided participants with the “same breadth of fund lineup” while removing any overlapping funds, leading to better diversification and reduced management fees for participants, Bercek says. Cambia estimates that the campaign will save its average participant 15% on total investment management fees and 30% on total equity manager fees.

Educating about the lineup change was just as important as the change itself. “The goal we had in creating the communications programs was to build a strong and positive message about why the changes [to the lineup] were happening,” Bercek says.

So the company provided a transitional website, comingled with the company’s regular Fidelity NetBenefits site, to help participants understand how the fund changes affected their 401(k) accounts and how those mapped into the new investment options. Further, Fidelity representatives were available to answer any questions. The multifaceted communications campaign also included email and print mail, live webinars and recorded desktop learning, Bercek says.

Throughout the year, NEBA will work with Fidelity to provide participants with educational campaigns. These include on-site meetings and an array of quarterly webinars from Fidelity. Cambia also has a relationship with managed account provider Financial Engines, giving participants the option to pay for professionally managed services for their 401(k) account.

In addition, Cambia offers its participants an annual employer elective contribution of 0% to 5%; over the past several years, this has averaged 4%. Besides this, the company offers a self-directed brokerage fund window.

It all goes back to a “multiyear focus” on the participant, Bercek says. In 2015, NEBA had worked with Cambia to set its match to 100% of the first 6% of pay—the percentage at which Cambia then set automatic enrollment.

Going forward, the company plans to keep a focus on education for the entire employee base, as well as monitor retirement readiness factors and the annual Fidelity plan health score.

—Corie Hengst