I.B.E.W. Local 697

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.

I.B.E.W. Local 697: There are several:

• We added a Roth account that allows for both in-service conversions of employer contributions and outside contributions and rollovers to be accepted on both a recurring basis and on a one-time basis;
• We switched provider platforms, which allowed us to lower the expense to participants and provide participants with a more thorough overview of their retirement readiness, facilitating a much more comprehensive and complete discussion about planning for their future. Specifically, the Empower platform allows our benefit office to upload other pension benefits that it provides, as well as other retirement benefits not pension related, but still important and necessary to properly plan for the future;
• We provide free one-on-one meetings and consultations with a registered investment adviser via in-person and Zoom meetings to assist participants with their retirement planning or financial planning in general; and
• We implemented a communication campaign that resulted in 67% of participants logging into and securing their account with the new platform provider within the first eight months of inception. Of course, our goal is for 100% of participants to log into their account and check contributions and investment performance, make investment elections, use the planning tools, check beneficiaries and view their other accumulated retirement benefits. Our goal is also to have 100% of the participants meet with the registered investment adviser.

PLANSPONSOR: What challenges do you face in plan administration or participant engagement?

I.B.E.W. Local 697: We’d like to do a better job at empowering the participants so they proactively take steps to both understand and control the resources available to them. We need to get them more involved and engaged in the fundamental decisions that will affect their retirement.

How we get the participant from where they are currently to there, we think, is a very, very important question and one we think about each day. The reality is that too many people delay, or fear, making such decisions or plans for reasons personal in nature. As such, we believe that the types and structure of the benefits we offer, the quality of the conversations and communications had or issued, and the ability to figure out exactly where each participant is and to be able to meet them at that level is where we are placing our efforts and resources.

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.