MyLifeNow, which will include a website to be launched in November, will help participants with enrollment, savings, tweaking asset allocation and preparing for a major transition. The program will also help employees deal with everyday life events such as buying a home, having a baby or sending a child to college. Although the website has not yet launched, e-mail and print communication is already in place, as is a call center.
“The program addresses one of employees’ main reasons for not taking action, which is that even though providers encourage and implore people to sign onto their websites, [employees] don’t always know what to do next once they get there,” said Deanna Garen, managing director of strategic marketing for New York Life. “They aren’t always presented with something clear and actionable.”
MyLifeNow will give participants “a whole methodology that has action steps and meets the participants where they are in life. We provide actions and behaviors they can employ.”
Sponsors can also review participant behavior through reporting metrics that track and benchmark progress as participants follow a series of actions suggested by New York Life. Garen said this will allow advisors and plan sponsors to demonstrate that they fulfilled their fiduciary duty by proving that they “moved the needle forward” in participants’ retirement planning.
“These are measurable outcome and metrics of what changed in their plans as a result of these steps,” Garen said.
