Retirement plan advisors will be able to interactively model not only retirement plan outcomes, but the impact of plan design changes and the cost of those changes with a new tool from Empower Retirement.
PlanVisualizer™, which will be available through Empower’s advisor website, is aimed at helping plan sponsors consider how possible changes to their plan – such as employer match, auto enrollment and rate of auto escalation, among others – can affect their employees’ retirement prospects.
The new technology utilizes a core set of anonymous data points supplied by the advisor or consultant – including employees’ ages, salaries, retirement plan balances and contribution rates – to provide plan sponsors with customized insight across demographic segments. The tool allows the advisor to filter/focus on specific populations – those in certain age brackets, for example – to evaluate not only the current projected outcomes, but also the impact on targeted groups.
The tool also offers a summary comparison of the current plan design compared to a proposed design change in terms of outcome(s) and cost, including the impact of design changes such as a change in matching rates, application of automatic enrollment (at various rates) and contribution acceleration (also at various rates).
Empower is offering advisors access to the tool free of charge. Plans do not have to be on the Empower platform to take advantage of PlanVisualizer.
PlanVisualizer will also be offered by Putnam Investments to assist advisors and consultants in serving their clients.
