Products June 5, 2008

Nationwide Initiative Designed to Increase 457 Plan Participation

June 5, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Nationwide Retirement Solutions (NRS) is partnering with The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) in reaching out to more than 1,100 mayors across the country to help them educate and prepare public employees for retirement.

Reported by

Rebecca Moore

According to a Nationwide announcement, a toolkit is being provided for mayors which includes a guide that contains talking points for employee communications, a suggested email from mayors to department heads, sample options for emails from mayors to city employees, sample options for emails from department heads to their employees, and a pledge for mayors to sign.

The 2008 Save for Retirement Initiative asks mayors to sign a pledge to promote the importance and benefits of participating in deferred compensation plans. Tom Cochran, Executive Director and CEO of the Conference, explained in the announcement: “Our goal is to dramatically increase the number of city employees participating in 457 retirement savings plans.”

As part of the 2008 Save for Retirement initiative, mayors are being asked to:

Reach out to employees to educate and promote the benefits of saving for retirement;
Promote city-sponsored informational workshops for employees to learn more about their program; and
Sign and pledge to actively promote retirement savings through activities like National Save for Retirement Week, Oct. 19-25, 2008.

The toolkit can be obtained by going to http://www.usmayors.org/saveforretirement/ .