Kentucky Farm Bureau

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

This plan boasts incredible participant metrics and outcomes, directly related to the company’s strategic plan design and initiatives. Besides an employer match and profit-sharing, the plan has automatic enrollment, annual automatic escalation and an annual re-enrollment campaign. The company is committed to the success of employees and has invested significant time and resources into designing a foolproof benefit. Finally, Kentucky Farm Bureau offers an extensive financial wellness program with regular group employee education. Employees have access to unlimited virtual and in-person individual meetings with certified financial planners.

Amanda Zorio, Compensation & Benefits Manager, Kentucky Farm Bureau
Photograph by Matt Kalinowski

PLANSPONSOR: How would you describe your company? What is its work or mission? Is there anything unique about its demographics?

Kentucky Farm Bureau: We’re much more than a property and casualty insurance carrier. We insure our neighbors, friends and family members. We have a great responsibility to help protect the lives and assets that so many Kentuckians have entrusted in our care. We put an emphasis on personal relationships and on our strong local presence in Kentucky communities large and small. Also, we’re a great place to work. We have a fantastic culture, a great atmosphere, and we take care of our employees through competitive pay and rich benefit programs.

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.

Kentucky Farm Bureau: Over the past 24 to 36 months, we have undertaken significant initiatives to strengthen our retirement plan, improve participant financial wellness and enhance fiduciary governance. These efforts have yielded measurable results in participant engagement, cost savings and plan efficiency.

Fiduciary Oversight and Plan Governance Enhancements

• In 2022, we completed a full retirement plan adviser and consultant request for proposals, leading to the engagement of Strategic Retirement Partners as 3(38) fiduciary advisers. This move ensured a higher standard of fiduciary oversight and participant-focused decisionmaking.
• That year, we also conducted a fiduciary governance overhaul, implementing governance documents, formalizing our retirement plan committee and launching annual fiduciary education training for committee members. Since then, we’ve monitored the plan quarterly and had annual plan design reviews.

Cost Efficiency and Plan Optimization

• In 2022, we conducted a recordkeeper RFP, transitioning to Transamerica. This improved payroll integration and investment offerings and resulted in a cost savings of 45%. We also completed a full investment analysis.
• In 2024, we conducted a full target-date-fund suitability analysis, replacing our existing qualified default investment alternative to achieve lower fees and stronger risk-adjusted returns, plus performed a cybersecurity request for information to evaluate Transamerica’s system security.

Participant Engagement and Financial Wellness

• In 2022, in preparation for the recordkeeper transition, we introduced a targeted participant education campaign ensuring employees understood plan enhancements and investment options. We also developed a custom enrollment and new hire orientation video to streamline onboarding and increase early participation rates.
• In 2023, we initiated a campaign to drive and improve employee results in the Transamerica Retirement Survey, focusing on participant engagement and retirement readiness.

Plan Design Improvements and Participant Outcomes

• In 2024, we increased our auto-enrollment deferral percentage to 6% from 3% and raised the automatic escalation cap to 15%.
• Over the past three years, our employees have attended more than two dozen virtual and in-person educational sessions, with more than 175 individual one-on-one consultations.

Results and Impact: Because of these initiatives and our focus on participant outcomes, 81.1% of our employees with data on file, now have a “Favorable” retirement outlook.

PLANSPONSOR: What are you most proud of as it relates to your retirement plan offering?

Kentucky Farm Bureau: I truly believe our plan is designed to set our employees up for retirement success. I appreciate the generous plan both personally, as I see the company match and profit-sharing contributions accumulate in my own account, and professionally, as my team and I get to advertise this plan to our employees and candidates. It makes our job a lot more enjoyable when it’s always a good-news story!

PLANSPONSOR: What does winning Plan Sponsor of the Year mean to you and your employer?

Kentucky Farm Bureau: It means we get to celebrate this accomplishment and confirms what we’ve been saying—that we’re committed to our employees through our comprehensive benefits program that promotes personal and financial well-being.

PLANSPONSOR: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Kentucky Farm Bureau: We have a comprehensive fiduciary education and wellness program, which includes:

• Group educational meetings and seminars, along with individual financial consultations, all offered in-person and virtually;
• Unlimited fiduciary virtual adviser access via phone, email and online meetings;
• Quarterly participant educational webinars and on-demand educational videos; and
• Monthly participant emails addressing timely financial topics and providing resources such as financial calculators and budgeting tools.

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.