Consolidating retirement accounts in days instead of weeks is the goal of “Pearl, The Transamerica Virtual Assistant,” introduced by the company today.
Pearl is a new, purpose-built digital experience that brings together AI, data and human support in a single, continuous workflow—designed to help retirement plan participants move savings from other retirement accounts into Transamerica with greater speed, simplicity and support.
By reducing friction, enabling intelligent orchestration and improving continuity, Transamerica says Pearl cuts the typical transition timeline by more than 50%, and participants using Pearl do not incur any additional fees.
“Pearl makes it easier for our retirement plan participants to take action with clear guidance and timely support.”
Transamerica’s Oriana Freidenberg
“At Transamerica, we’re enhancing customer experiences and actively fulfilling our commitment to helping people save and invest for their future selves,” said Oriana Freidenberg, head of Customer Experience and Marketing at Transamerica. “Pearl makes it easier for our retirement plan participants to take action with clear guidance and timely support—while ensuring a Transamerica representative is readily available if a personal conversation is their preferred choice or the best next step.”
In a press release today, Transamerica noted that consolidating retirement assets is an important financial decision, but the process has traditionally been fragmented—often involving paperwork, multiple steps, and uncertainty about what comes next. Pearl streamlines this experience by creating a single, persistent participant space where AI guidance, relevant data, and human support come together in one place, rather than across disconnected channels, which the company says helps participants stay informed and move forward with confidence from start to finish.
Participants are guided through key action steps like account verification, document collection and secure transfer of funds. Pearl helps ensure participants know what to do at each stage—reducing confusion, limiting rework and supporting a smoother path to completion.
Pearl is designed with strong safeguards to help protect participant information, including encryption and robust security controls to support privacy and security throughout the experience. Together, these capabilities reflect a platform built to meet the regulatory expectations of the financial services industry.
For this initiative, Transamerica teamed up with Zingly, an enterprise AI-powered customer experience platform. Zingly provides the secure, multimodal AI technology layer powering Pearl’s intelligent experience, supporting Transamerica’s continued focus on delivering innovative experiences for clients, plan sponsors and participants.
On-demand human support
While Pearl streamlines the end-to-end experience, participants are not limited to a digital-only path. At any time, they can connect with a Transamerica representative for one-on-one support—whether they want reassurance, have questions or simply prefer speaking with a person.
Human assistance is available during business hours. If a participant reaches out after hours, a representative responds the next business day to help ensure timely follow-up and continuity. Pearl remains available around the clock to answer questions, maintain progress and preserve context, ensuring participants can keep moving forward even outside business hours.
Baltimore-based Transamerica is a leading provider of life insurance, retirement, and investment solutions for more than 10 million Americans.
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