OneDigital and Principal partner on SMB 401(k) savings
To help small businesses manage employee expectations to support retirement saving, OneDigital and Principal Financial Group have collaborated to offer Simply Retirement by Principal to OneDigital clients.
Simply Retirement by Principal is designed for businesses with fewer than 100 employees that can reduce barriers to new plan adoption such as time, human resources (HR), and compliance oversight.
“Studies show that insufficient workplace retirement options and low employee participation contribute to the lack of savings among many retiring Americans. In fact, only 42% of small businesses offer retirement benefits,”said Julie Cape, executive vice president of Client Services, Enterprise & Select at OneDigital. “By capitalizing on our unique vantage point through our shared employer relationships, Simply Retirement by Principalwill help remove complexities for small businesses and leverage the small business tax credits included in SECURE 2.0 to empower leaders to invest in their employees’ financial security.”
By streamlining the process of setting up and managing a retirement plan, Simply Retirement by Principal helps alleviate the administration of and risk associated with payroll integration, data collection, and investment selection. Customers work with their OneDigital financial professional to engage with the digital platform of Simply Retirement by Principal to design plans, make their elections, sign required documents, and view plan data.
“For years, Principal has valued our relationship with OneDigital to serve the employee benefits needs of small and midsize businesses,” said Scott Boyd, senior vice president for Retirement and Income Solutions at Principal. “Expanding our relationship to include a 401(k) plan that leverages Simply Retirement by Principal® is another example of our commitment to work with SMBs to support the growth of their businesses and the financial goals of their employees.”
Diversitas introduces new director
The University of Akron College of Business and its Department of Finance has added Carina Diamond, CEO and founder of Stella Secunda, as the new director for the national Diversitas program.
Diversitas, founded at The University of Akron, is aimed at diversifying the wealth management industry and promoting diversity in people and professions.
Under its new leadership, Diversitas plans to broaden its scope and participate in a rebranding endeavor. The firm says its next phase will also include the diversification of careers. “There are myths about the industry, that it’s all about math and sales,” said Diamond. “In reality, there are job opportunities in a broad array of areas including technology, marketing, law, and other non-client facing sales roles.”
At the Diversitas helm, Diamond will lead her team in the active search for new corporate sponsors. In addition to sponsors, the program says it is currently seeking more interested partner universities.
Alongside her new role with Diversitas, Diamond also runs her own consulting business focused on succession planning and next-gen talent development. Further, she serves as an executive in residence at The University of Akron College of Business. For several years, Diamond has sponsored a namesake passion, The Diamond Graduate Women’s Leadership Xperience, providing interdisciplinary leadership enrichment to women graduate students across the UA campus.
Transamerica collabs with State Street on TDF series
ARS announced today that Transamerica is adding the State Street GTC Retirement Income Builder to its recordkeeping platform.
The tool provides lifetime income, while preserving growth opportunity and participant control of the assets.
“Transamerica is keenly focused on delivering solutions that can help participants better prepare for retirement,” said Phil Eckman, president of Transamerica Workplace Solutions. “By adding this target date series as an option for plan sponsors and their participants, we deliver a much-needed investment option that is designed to generate both growth and lifetime income, not one over the other.”
The series combines services and products from State Street Global Advisors, Transamerica Life Insurance Company, and ARS, including the latter’s patent-pending lifetime income solution, Lifetime Income Builder.
The solution, which launched earlier this year, is embedded directly within the target date fund’s glidepath as a separate asset class, and is said to help promote growth opportunity and permit liquidity and portability. The Series is designed to be used as a qualified default investment alternative (QDIA).
“Transamerica has always had a progressive approach to delivering new solutions and is a natural partner to offer this investment,” said Dave Paulsen, chief distribution officer at ARS. “Historically, lifetime income solutions require a tradeoff of growth opportunity or liquidity, but we’ve removed those tradeoffs within this product design.”
The Series helps mitigate sequence of return risk by capturing quarterly high-water marks on the full account value and utilizing the Transamerica Stable Value offering for those near and in retirement. The fund targets a 6% annual income rateat income activation, calculated using the highest captured high-water mark of the fund.
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Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.