Vanguard

Vanguard has been supporting its client Leidos since 1986, aiming to give its 20,000 employees the opportunity for investment success by offering best-in-class retirement plan and menu design as these have evolved over the years.

According to the plan sponsor, it has also provided best-in-class service.

“Ryan Russell and Quincy Talbert always go above and beyond, excelling in every way—they are part of our team,” says Elizabeth Pattillo, director, retirement programs, at Leidos, referring to two of the service team’s senior client relationship administrators. Last year, when Leidos enacted the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, “both were instrumental in making sure that participants had loans suspended—a manual process—and working in tandem with our team to ensure loans restart when expected.”

To add to the plan sponsor’s demands last year, it also changed payroll providers in January. “There were a lot of issues in the transition between payroll vendors that caused an immense amount of auditing, manual corrections, hundreds of calculations for missed contributions and a VCP [voluntary correction program] filling,” Pattillo recalls. The Vanguard team, which also includes senior client relationship administrator Christi Saporetti, ensured that employees had communications and that everything was processed as quickly as possible. Pattillo counts more than 15 discrete instances over the next eight months “that required an inordinate amount of extra work, and [the team] always delivered with a smile.”

The client, which describes itself as “a global leader in the integration and application of information technology [IT], engineering and science” takes a purposeful approach to its plan design and has a long history of adopting cutting-edge services, tools and experiences that can help improve participants’ retirement outcomes, says a spokeswoman for Vanguard.

For that reason, it was a natural that Leidos wanted to be an early adopter of a new Vanguard advice platform last year. This was another highly complex process requiring extra attention and care, says Pattillo. Leidos and Lauren Hastings, a relationship executive with Vanguard, “spent many, many weeks together to ensure that what was being created could meet our committee’s and company’s end goal for employees. Lauren ensured that we had direct access to decisionmakers, designers, security and leadership people so we could make informed decisions and ultimately decide to launch the services. The project management, attention to detail, willingness to hear our—my—concerns and suggestions and then act on them are the hallmark traits from Lauren and Vanguard.”

Leidos successfully launched the digital advice services to its enterprise last year and, as of last August, planned to add the program’s personal advice services in October. “All of the work that has gone into this, and knowing that Lauren speaks on our behalf and looks out from a participant perspective as much as a Vanguard perspective, is invaluable and so very much appreciated,” Pattillo says.

The appreciation is mutual, the Vanguard spokeswoman suggests. The sponsor “continues to serve as a close advice partner, providing thoughtful feedback and recommendations that have meaningfully influenced the design and capabilities of our advice services for future adopters.

“Leidos understands the critical role that best-in-class plan and menu design, as well as technology and advice, can play in helping participants achieve retirement success, and we’re honored to continue to deliver world-class solutions and services to the firm and its participants,” she says.

—Lee Barney