Gwinnett County Public Schools

GCPS’s Projected Retirement Estimator for Planning is a retirement education initiative that consolidates individual data and projections for an employee’s various retirement accounts into one personalized spreadsheet. The GCPS director of retirement created the tool to address low engagement and shared it by visiting the schools. Through support of the plans’ recordkeeper, this effort was expanded to include on-site education and one-on-ones with dedicated financial advisers, who visit at least twice a year. Surveys after the meetings show employees change their contributions, register their accounts online, review their investments or set up subsequent meetings with their adviser.

From left: David D. Harris, Director of Retirement, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Rebecca Moore, managing editor, custom content, PLANSPONSOR.

To get to know them better, PLANSPONSOR sent the 2026 Plan Sponsor of the Year winners a list of questions from which to choose four to answer. Below are responses from David Harris on behalf of Gwinnett County Public Schools.

PLANSPONSOR: What does winning Plan Sponsor of the Year mean to you and your employer? Will you publicize the win outside of the human resources/benefits team?

Gwinnett County Public Schools: Winning Plan Sponsor of the Year is a crowning achievement in my career. Although it was rewarding to be a finalist, I really wanted us to win. That national recognition for an innovation—our Projected Retirement Estimator for Planning, or PREP—which I created, is very satisfying; I believe the uniqueness of that solution, and the fact that it was “client-created” and “consultant-implemented”—vs. the other way around—proved it worthy of recognition in the eyes of the judges. Texts and emails went flying about immediately after the announcement as we excitedly told team members and family. Press releases have been posted by Corebridge Financial, our adviser; our internal Education Briefs newsletter announced it, as did the Georgia Association of Public Plan Trustees. We received various congratulatory comments online and via email.

PLANSPONSOR: What is one piece of advice you would offer to other plan sponsors aiming to improve employee financial well-being or retirement readiness?

Gwinnett County Public Schools: Find out what your workforce is lacking, whether that be financial education, access to programs or incentive to act. Marry that with your company’s vision for retirement and create/communicate programs that fill those gaps. Everyone’s retirement journey is unique, and you need to understand each to help the employee effectively navigate and use the available programs to create a personal version of “success.”

For us, that means 25,000 perspectives to which we must adapt and, in a world of increasing reliance on technology, to deliver messaging to. In that world, it is still personal interactions that drive the most meaningful results.

PLANSPONSOR: In the past two years, what is one change or innovation in your plan design, governance or participant engagement that you believe has made a meaningful difference?

Gwinnett County Public Schools: Our PREP innovation has simplified retirement education by combining participants’ accounts from three programs—state defined benefit plan, local DB plan and 403/457 plan—into a graphical retirement playbook. Employees quickly see how their continued employment impacts their benefits across a continuum of retirement eligibility dates, both as a dollar figure and as a percentage of anticipated salary. PREP reports display when benchmark retirement metrics are achieved and, in conjunction with a personal meeting with a financial adviser, create actionable steps for the employee to implement, to achieve financial security in retirement. In the past three years, over 7,500 employees have benefited from PREP.

PLANSPONSOR: What priorities or areas of focus will guide your retirement program over the next few years?

Gwinnett County Public Schools: We recognize that there are still growth opportunities within our 403/457 programs. Although we have automatic enrollment, the initial deferral is below best practice, and the lack of automatic escalation prevents us from defaulting employees to our recommended long-term level if the employee does nothing. Our hope is to initiate both changes over the next two years. Auto-enrollment has increased participation from 30% to 85%, with 94% of those auto-enrolled continuing their deferrals, so that is a success. Now we must evolve to benefit our future employees by providing retirement security even if they do not actively engage in the process.