Retirement Education Meetings...A Missed Opportunity?

This fall I have conducted a number of Financial Education Meetings at employee worksites.  Several of my clients have strong participation in their 401k plans, so traditional enrollment meetings have not been needed.  Rather, we have pivoted to putting together financial education meetings that span many fronts.
 
You might be thinking at this point that the point of this blog post is to stress how important it is to reinforce budgeting, debt management, education planning, emergency funds, comprehensive insurance reviews, etc.  And the list goes on.  And while all those items are important, critically important, I am not going to discuss them here.

Rather, what has been interesting to me and what I do want to cover is how I have worked with the HR departments at my clients to get a better understanding of their overall benefits programs as I prep for my financial planning meetings.   The benefit offerings at an employer can often be a seamless web and to discuss one offering in isolation of the others is to not fully convey the value of all the programs and how they work together. 

For example, when I cover the need to review insurance, I like to know what the employer already provides. Is their term life insurance in place?  How about some short and/or long term disability coverage?  Knowing the answers to these questions allows me to piece together multiple components of the protection story and help the employees understand that their employer has already taken steps to help them out.

Another place I spend time is understanding the Employee Assistance Program.  When I discuss the need for employees to have wills, health care directives, and power of attorneys, I often point out that the EAP offered by their employer is available at no cost (generally) to help employees get started on getting these documents in place.  These are only a couple of examples.  There are many more to be considered.

I generally find that taking a comprehensive approach to the benefit programs leaves the employees feeling more empowered and confident as well as more appreciative of their employer.  It is a shame when an employer and their benefits broker put together comprehensive programs that are underappreciated and/or underutilized.  Everyone leaves shortchanged in these situations.

If you are an employer looking for an adviser that takes a comprehensive approach to all your benefit programs beyond just the retirement plan, please give me a call.  I would love to discuss how we might work together.

Pete Welsh a/k/a 401KGuy