Open Dealer Exchange

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

This is a company that truly cares about setting its employees up for success. Back in 2019, the plan already had a decent match of 100% of up to 4%. After looking at benchmark studies and reviewing what employees really need to save to retire comfortably, the company, for one thing, increased its match to 100% of the first 4% and then 50% of the next 4%. This not only allowed participants more employer match, but also encouraged them to increase their deferrals. To maximize the match, which most employees do, they would be contributing 8% and receiving a 6% match, putting them right on target to retire comfortably based on the generic rule of striving to save 10% to 15% of your compensation for retirement.

The company leaders are also very passionate about encouraging participants to be dialed into their financial wellness. Some recent campaigns that come to mind encouraged employees to maximize their match and also to make sure they’re adequately diversified. As a result of the company’s efforts, the plan participation rate is 93%, the average contribution rate is 8.4% and more than 20% of employees contribute at least 10%. The average lifetime income score of participants has increased nearly 20% since the changes were implemented.

PLANSPONSOR: Please cite any noteworthy initiatives you have taken in the past 24 to 36 months that have produced results to improve your plan, and describe the results.

Open Dealer Exchange: We’ve been in business for only 15 years and are working to get all our associates to become seriously interested in long-term planning. To look into how to do so, we benchmarked the plan. This led us to add automatic enrollment, negotiate lower fees and increase our match by up to 50% to encourage greater saving. We also added a financial wellness program, which provides instruction through webinars, newsletters, town halls, etc., to enhance participants’ well-being. We have quarterly meetings with our advisers to ensure we stay best-in-class.

Our president has an extensive personal financial background and passion for this topic, which has been really helpful. We genuinely care about our colleagues and their long-term saving and planning.

PLANSPONSOR: Please explain the ongoing governance efforts of those involved with the plan meant to ensure its compliance and effective operation.

Open Dealer Exchange: We’re very attentive to how we govern the plan, adhering to our committee charter and investment policy statement, holding very structured quarterly committee meetings and conducting annual audits. We also have a corporate-wide risk management committee that keeps tabs on things too.

This year, for our Plan Sponsor of the Year profiles, we are publishing Q&As based on the finalists’ applications and nominator comments. Responses are edited and may be paraphrased. In cases where the finalist self-nominated or, on its application, referred judges to the nomination for the answer, we have attributed those nominator answers to the plan sponsor.