Great-West Life Launches Retirement Education Website

The website, smartPATH 2.0, is presented as a virtual neighborhood that can be customized to reflect the details of each participating employer’s specific group retirement and savings plan. Touch points throughout the site educate employees about their plan while encouraging and facilitating enrollment. 

The site is accessible from multiple platforms such as desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices.

“Many employees are still not on track to achieve adequate retirement income because they fail to participate or fully engage in their employer-sponsored retirement program, even when there is a matching employer contribution,” says Jeff Aarssen, vice president of group retirement services sales and marketing for Great-West Life, based in Winnipeg.

Aarssen says behavioral finance theory has found these decisions are strongly influenced by emotion, psychology and mental shortcuts, with unengaged employees wanting employers to present educational information in more interesting and motivating ways.

“SmartPATH 2.0 was designed using behavioral finance and motivational theory,” he adds. “This approach acknowledges the role emotions play in financial decisionmaking. It provides information in a manner that appeals to a broad range of ages and learning styles, so we can help people make better financial decisions.”

A video about smartPATH can be found here.

Great-West Life is a provider of capital accumulation plans in Canada. In the United States, Great-West Life’s sister company does business as Great-West Financial, a group retirement plan recordkeeper.