Plan sponsor newsletter
Q1 2024
It’s about time—2024 overview and participant outreach for Q1
Our annual participant engagement program is now available and you’ll now find our full year schedule of 2024 engagement activities on the It’s about time landing page.
We’ve also posted our complete list of webinars for next year, so you can begin promoting them to your participants.
Our journey-based outreach for Q1 hits participant email boxes January 9 through 19.
Carrying the theme “Building a better you,” these targeted messages will help educate participants about balancing and pursuing both long- and short-term goals. The focus is on enrolling/engaging with their plan, saving more for their retirement, and visiting the retirement planner to set a strategy for their savings and personalize their plan.
View our Q1 initiatives on the It’s about time web page
As always, we’ll supply advocacy components to help you support the concept of building a better you through goal setting. These materials will be available in February, and we’ll let you know when they’re posted for download.
Upcoming webinar—What’s new with SECURE 2.0 Act?
It’s been a year since this ambitious piece of retirement plan legislation was signed into law. You’re invited to join our experts for a review of what’s transpired with SECURE 2.0 and what’s still to come.
This session will be led by Chris Frank, head of DC consulting, and Tami Guimelli, assistant vice president and associate chief counsel. They’ll tackle the key question, “What do we know one year later with SECURE 2.0?”
Specific topics include:
• What provisions have become effective?
• What provisions should plan sponsors focus on in 2024?
• When are plan amendments due for all provisions?
• What guidance has been issued by the IRS and DOL?
• What should plan sponsors do to keep a good record of SECURE 2.0 activity?
Register now for this important webinar, which is scheduled for Thursday, January 25, at 2:00 P.M., Eastern time.
Key mobile app functionality—now en español
Participants can now enjoy our most popular features through the app, such as viewing account details—including balance, rate of return, investments, and outstanding loans. John Hancock’s retirement app is available in both iOS and Google app stores.
The benefits of eDelivery—and how to get them
If using computers is a main component of your employees’ or members’ jobs, then, according to “wired at work” provisions,1 you’re eligible to send enrollment materials and other plan documents to them electronically.
eDelivery could help create some new advantages for your people and organization, including:
• A more streamlined enrollment experience to encourage engagement
• Instant access to important plan information
• Simplified plan administration
To get started:
1 Contact your John Hancock representative to confirm that your workforce is wired at work
2 Provide us with employee or member email addresses before they become eligible to enroll
3 Add John Hancock Retirement to your safe senders list
Contact your John Hancock representative for details.
Now available—our new State of the participant
The latest version of our retirement-readiness research looks at the period from June 30, 2022, through June 30, 2023. Authored by three John Hancock executives/subject matter experts, our featured viewpoints cover:
• Retirement readiness from two perspectives: income replacement and expense coverage. It includes reviews of participants’ status, the methodologies of each measure, and how these benchmarks can complement each other.
• Details on how participants moved their investments and what happened to account balances over our 12-month study period.
• Trends in new plan loans, hardship withdrawals, and contributions—and whether they seemed to help or hinder participants’ progress.
Our state of the participant resource center provides tools for helping your participants achieve better retirement saving outcomes.
This year’s campaign theme is “Insight and tools to help participants on their journey to retirement.” In this spirit, we compiled a plan sponsor tool kit for each of our four viewpoints, 25 tips in all for measuring and improving the participant experience.
Important disclosures
1 A company is wired at work eligible if each active plan participant can access electronic documents at any location where the participant is reasonably expected to perform duties for the company, and access to the company’s electronic information system is an integral part of each participant’s duties for the company.
The content of this document is for general information only and is believed to be accurate and reliable as of the posting date, but may be subject to change. It is not intended to provide investment, tax, plan design, or legal advice (unless otherwise indicated). Please consult your own independent advisor as to any investment, tax, or legal statements made.
John Hancock Retirement Plan Services LLC provides administrative and/or recordkeeping services to sponsors or administrators of retirement plans as well as a platform of investment alternatives that is made available without regard to the individualized needs of any plan through an open-architecture platform. John Hancock Trust Company LLC provides trust and custodial services to such plans. Unless otherwise specifically stated in writing, John Hancock Retirement Plan Services LLC does not, and is not undertaking to, provide impartial investment advice or give advice in a fiduciary capacity.
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