Wells Fargo Offers Simplified Participant Education Materials

February 26, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services is now offering simplified enrollment materials for the employer-sponsored retirement plans it manages, the company announced.

A Wells Fargo news release said the new materials feature “action-oriented messages” aimed at getting more people into their employer’s plan.

“Research has shown that when employees are overwhelmed by choice, they will just avoid making a decision. Choosing not to save is not a good choice,” said Jennifer Plese, Director of Participant Products and Services for Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services, in the news release. “We are trying to simplify the process in order to get more employees into the plan.”

The new enrollment materials incorporate findings from focus groups held with Wells Fargo clients, including employees and plan sponsors, and Wells Fargo’s own team members, as well as from industry research, the announcement said. The information includes streamlined messages and focuses on a simplified, three-step enrollment process: decide how much to contribute, choose an investment and enroll today.

That focus is consistent with the adult learning principles Wells Fargo uses in its employee education meetings, the company said. One of these principles is that adults learn and remember best when information is grouped in threes. In Wells Fargo’s new enrollment materials, the first set of investments is asset allocation options, where an employee can make one choice. The second set consists of individual mutual funds from which an employee can create their own portfolio. The third option is to have investments done for workers through an advice program.

More information about the company is at  https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/institutional_inv/trust_svs .

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