The Retirement Leader Of The Year is awarded to an individual who has made a key impact on their firm or the industry as a whole. This person will be the driving force behind a product or initiative that helps to turnaround their firm’s fortunes, increase assets or have industrywide implications.
MassMutual
MassMutual in 2011 scored sales successes and made a serious push into the online educational market for retirement planning, scoring big points with plan sponsor and participant organizations. At year’s end, MassMutual’s sales were more than $6 billion—$5.2 billion to defined contribution plans, which was a 13% increase from 2010.
MassMutual also offered action-oriented participant education programs—a participant action campaign and live participant seminars—scoring accolades from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. New online interactive education materials dubbed “RetireSmart ” were also released in 2011. The campaign included a Facebook page, an enhanced and relaunched website and interactive games, as well as a short online TV series to educate participants on key financial topics and how to prepare for retirement. In the summer of 2011, MassMutual launched a new tool called “PlanSmart Analysis,” which assesses the percentage of employees who are on track to retire in a way they’d planned.
The firm was recognized in the Boston Research Group’s 2011 Defined Contribution Plan Retirement Advisor Satisfaction and Loyalty Study, earning the top spot in overall customer satisfaction. The firm also received recognition for its trade print and video advertising in 2011 by the Insurance and Financial Communicators Association.
Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments had a strong sales year in 2011 and bolstered its plan sponsor and retiree offerings and education efforts to increase participation. As of Sept. 30, the firm had 10.9 million defined contribution participants and $768.1 billion in assets under management, up from 2010’s $689.7 billion.
In August, Fidelity began a push to market to smaller defined contribution plans, with new multi-manager mutual funds exclusively for small defined contribution plans. Fidelity also launched a new retirement distribution center on its website to make managing retirement plans easier for its clients, a move that was well received by its participants.
For participants, Fidelity launched its Income Strategy Evaluator, which helps participants view their income needs as they come closer to retirement and launched a new series of educational articles titled “Retirement Income Viewpoints.”
JPMorgan Asset Management
In 2011, JPMorgan Asset Management experienced 87% growth defined contribution investment sales, netting roughly $14.8 billion. Over the course of 2011, the firm added 198,431 participants, compared to 2010, when just 94,000 new participants were added—a 111% increase.
The asset management team for JPMorgan was restructured in 2011 and 2010, bringing in key executives responsible for the growth. In 2011, Benji Baer was named the new chief marketing officer and David Musto was named the chief executive officer of retirement plan services. In late 2010 Michael Falcon became the new head of retirement.
JPMorgan concentrated on the effort to bolster its client advisors in defined contribution specialized advising as well as retirement services planning. The firm more than doubled the retirement services planning advisor ranks in the past eighteen months, from seven to 14 sales people, and increased DC advisors as well.
Even with a concentration on institutional retirement plan services, the firm has continued to lead in the recordkeeping business, with 2011 sales up $8.7 billion or 11%, over 2010. Additionally, the firm won $7.6 billion in new contracts that have yet to take effect.
USAA Retirement
USAA Retirement saw strong growth in 2011, bolstering advertising and growing its retirement tool offerings to enhance service. After an aggressive advertising campaign to the firm’s niche market of military retirees, the provider saw an increase of 9.35% in Individual Retirement Account assets under management as of Sept. 30, the latest available data. The Investment Company Institute showed that this was four times the industry average, which was 2.2%. USAA has a total of $36 billion in IRA assets.
In 2011 USAA decided to take the marketing campaign it began in 2010 and take it to the national stage. The expansion included television and web-based advertising.
USAA also enhanced its budgeting tools for its participants, adding investment, insurance and banking account features. The budgeting tool allows participants to input data about their current financial situation and where they would like to be when they retire. It gives participants daily updates how they’re doing to meet their retirement goals, a function that only USAA has added to their retirement tools. There has been a 400% increase in the usage of tools to create retirement plans, the firm reported.