Financial professional newsletter

Your time is a precious commodity. That’s why we offer a suite of online tools and resources to help make prospecting, onboarding, and plan management easier for you.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll find on our financial professionals’ website:

• Prospect finder—Helps make finding and prioritizing leads simpler, with the ability to run plan comparisons at the industry, state, and national levels
• Onboarding resource center—Delivers materials for your participant meetings directly to your inbox to customize and share
• Plan manager—Automates the scheduling and servicing of your plan sponsor and participant activities

Every year, we survey participants to find out how they’re feeling about their finances and retirement planning. This year’s report reveals that while the economy is taking a toll on many participants, not everyone is struggling. There’s a clear connection among participants’ actions, financial situations, and retirement readiness—and your guidance plays a big part.

Some key findings

Economic conditions have elevated financial stress.

• 68% of workers say their finances are a cause of stress—up from 58% in 2021
• 7 in 10 are worried a great deal about the economy, with inflation topping the list

This stress is having ripple effects on employers.

• 38% of workers think they’ll now retire later than planned, which may increase benefit and compensation costs
• 8 in 10 worry about their finances at work, which may reduce productivity

Your guidance makes a difference.

• 71% of workers who have a financial professional are happy with their financial situation 
• People who work with a financial professional are three times more likely to say their retirement savings is ahead of schedule  

Opportunities in the small plan market are growing thanks to the increasing number of state-mandated retirement programs and the SECURE 2.0 small business provisions. We’ve created the following web pages to help you position your retirement plan solutions and open doors with prospective clients:

1. State-facilitated retirement plans—Overview of the state programs currently available or under consideration

2. Small business retirement plans—Plan fiduciary resources and thought leadership focused on starting a retirement plan

3. Getting to know SECURE 2.0 Act—White paper, thought leadership, frequently asked questions, and on-demand webinars

Money market funds are usually one of the first options people think of when they think capital preservation. But stable value funds may be an alternative. Check out our stable value web page to help build your understanding of these funds, our offering, and the role they can play in a plan’s investment lineup.

• How stable value funds work
• Where stable value fits in the capital preservation landscape
• How they can help provide stability in times of stress
• Our stable value investment approach
• On-demand webinar: "Understanding capital preservation options in a rapidly changing interest-rate environment"

Featuring specialists from John Hancock and Manulife Investment Management, our five-part special educational series helps participants build their understanding of how economic conditions may affect the stock market and their investments for retirement and other financial goals.

1. Introduction to the stock market
2. Understanding risk
3. Long- versus short-term investing                                                           
4. Managing market volatility
5. Recognizing stock market trends

What’s your role? You can simply encourage participants to watch by sharing the link to our webinar web page.

This series is just one of the ways we partner with you to help engage participants and improve retirement readiness.

We’re honored to partner with Schwarz Partners and their advisor Sageview to provide a retirement plan that “helps people help themselves.” And we thank them for letting us share their success story with you.  

Profile

• Full-service provider in the corrugated industry, from paper mill to delivery
• One 401(k) plan with $187.8 million in assets and 4,992 participants
• 67 pay groups across 48 operations

Key results

• 95.9% participation rate
• 8.8% average deferral rate

Strategy

• Streamlined administration by partnering with one payroll provider for most of its operations
• Increased default deferral rate to 6% to help ensure participants would receive the full match
• Performs annual automatic contribution increases and re-enrollment for all nonparticipants
• Held 46 in-person education meetings over 20 days to show participants how they can stay on track for retirement during difficult financial times
• Offers group and one-on-one meetings with certified advisors from Sageview for participants nearing retirement
• Holds a biennial HR summit, bringing together the HR teams from all their locations and their benefit partners to discuss the plan and how to support employees   

You can read more about Schwarz Partners’ recognition at plansponsor.com.

John Hancock, Schwarz Partners, and Sageview Advisory Group are not affiliated and none are responsible for the liabilities of the others.

Our on-demand courses let you focus on your professional development anytime, anywhere. You can earn credits on a range of plan design and fiduciary topics while gaining insight to help shape your client conversations and business strategy.