Manulife Reinvents Its 401(k) Participant Goal Setting Process

The new Manulife approach is designed to make it easier for 401(k) participants to set personal retirement goals and make informed decisions that will help them to achieve these goals, process accomplished through a trio of components, including:

• Participant Web Site – the Web site ( www.Manulife401k.com ) helps users to answer planning questions based on their own circumstances and goals.  After entering some basic personal information, participants are prompted to select from one of five potential retirement lifestyles. A participant then takes a short risk quiz before being presented with a personalized retirement Action Plan complete with suggested monthly contribution amounts.

• Annual Review & Action Plan – each year, participants will be prompted to take five minutes to complete an Annual Review that can help them to stay on track to achieve their goals.  Participants can also choose to receive a personal Action Plan, which uses information they supply to create personalized strategies that help them to decide how much they need to contribute and how to allocate those contributions.

• Participant Statement – quarterly statements have been redesigned to allow participants to view their personal rates of return for as long as they have been contributing to their 401(k) plans through Manulife USA.  The statement also estimates participants’ monthly retirement incomes based on their current contribution rates and projected Social Security incomes.

Applying this newly acquired knowledge, Manulife seeks to help participants to focus on four key retirement planning questions: How much will my retirement cost? How much do I need to contribute to pay for it? How should I allocate my contributions? And how am I doing?