Putnam's Enhances Website for 401(k) Plan Sponsors

Putnam Investments has launched an enhanced website for sponsors of 401(k) plans and other defined-contribution retirement programs.

The new site gives sponsors a customized plan dashboard with numerous new features: on-demand reporting and testing, which allows sponsors to generate reports instantly, measure success and identify areas of greater focus; Fiduciary Central, an online repository of all plan documentation needed to comply with the seven-year retention requirement; Putnam proprietary fund monitoring that gives a simplified day-to-day tracking of fund performance within the plan and proactively notifies the sponsor when action may be required and alerts, forms, transactions, the sponsor’s profile and the latest retirement plan and investing news.

David Tyrie, director of Putnam defined contribution product and marketing, says the new site is aimed at the adviser community and how it can better serve plan sponsors. “It’s the first site that has to have an adviser customize it for their client,” he adds.

The adviser can create a business plan with the client and then they customize the dashboard based on this plan. The customized alerts can include everything from changes made in the portfolio to notification that a participation rate goal has been met. There is also a fund watch that, besides the traditional risk vs. rate of return metrics, also has bubbles that show how many participants are invested in a particular fund. If too many participants are invested in a certain fund, the plan sponsor can set up a discussion about diversification.

Tyrie said Putnam had not heard any complaints about the old site, but the company decided it could enhance it in a way to benefit both the advisors and plan sponsors. “People don’t comment about a plan sponsor site,” he says.  “It’s just there. We saw this as an opening to enrich the relationship with the plan sponsor.”

 

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