Untangling Complexity in a Large Plan
As a leading retirement plan provider for the not-for-profit market, Corebridge Financial has collaborated with K-12 schools, government, healthcare, higher education, and other not-for-profit institutions for more than 60 years.
Their work in this space has led them to build a near 10-year relationship with The Salvation Army, one of the largest charitable organizations in the country and around the globe.
Corebridge began its work with the Christian church and charity organization’s southern territory in 2016, back when the provider was The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC). The Salvation Army Southern Territory had submitted an extensive request for proposal (RFP) looking for a provider that could help their participants improve their retirement and financial outcomes.
The Salvation Army breaks up its members into two groups: employees and officers, explained Scott Strobel, the Pension and Retirement Plan director for The Salvation Army Southern Territory. Officers are structured similarly as those in the U.S. Army. They can include generals, lieutenants, captains, majors, and even voluntary corporals. For The Salvation Army, “officers dedicate their lives to serving others and have a different way in being compensated, so they have a different way in contributing to the plan,” described Strobel.
Of the 8,500 members of The Salvation Army Southern Territory, 8,200 are employees while the rest are officers. While employees contribute to retirement plans under the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), officers save for their retirement under a 403(b)(9), a non-ERISA plan geared towards church organizations.
It’s one of the reasons why The Salvation Army Southern Territory initially chose to work with Corebridge, Strobel says. “There really weren’t other companies in the space that offered [403(b)(9) plans],” he added.
Addressing Plan Complexity
Another main hurdle to improving participant outcomes was unravelling the organization’s plan density. After their initial RFP in 2016, The Salvation Army Southern Territory decided to review its employee plans as well.
The organization offered both a legacy 401(a)-pension plan and a voluntary 403(b) plan with no employer match, which created confusion among employees and potential new hires and duplicated plan expenses, said Terri Fiedler, President of Retirement Services at Corebridge. The employee plan had struggled to modernize, as the 403(b) plan was rarely utilized by workers.
“I would talk to employees and look at forms that they completed, and it was obvious that they didn’t know there were two plans,” recalled Strobel. “We started to look at ways we could enhance the programs, mainly for understanding purposes. If you have a benefit, nobody is going to use it if you don’t understand it properly.”
Starting in 2018, Corebridge implemented automatic enrollment and escalation to the organization’s plans. “We wanted to be a strategic partner to them, not just a retirement provider,” Fiedler said.
Incorporating Diverse Communication Strategies
The firm then embarked on an 18-month journey in June of 2022, developing and instituting a strategy to enhance and transform the plan with the goal of simplifying the structure, increasing matching contributions, and creating purposeful communications.
Corebridge began directing future contributions from the 401(a) plan to the 403(b) plan in the form of a match and raised matching contributions for the 403(b) to 6%. They leveraged their automatic features to encourage employees to participate and built a communications strategy centered around the changes and plan details.
The provider implemented an omnichannel approach in its communication plan, using both digital and in-person strategies to market the 403(b) plan, and created materials in both English and Spanish to meet the needs of the plan’s workforce. Corebridge also offered to employees the opportunity to engage with Spanish-speaking financial professionals. The Salvation Army’s Southern Territory encompasses 13 states in the south, including a large concentration of Spanish-speaking employees in Texas and Florida, Strobel noted.
The organization also holds an assorted set of employment types, making it tough to build one comprehensive communications strategy. There are store clerks, truck drivers, resident monitors in adult rehabilitation centers, and administrative employees in human resources (HR), accounting, and legal teams.
“We wanted to be a strategic partner to them, not just a retirement provider.”
Terri Fiedler, Corebridge Financial
While employees on the admin side could benefit from a targeted digital strategy, store clerks and truck drivers—who aren’t sitting in front of a computer daily—would not have thrived with the approach. To solve this barrier, the team at Corebridge created posters for breakrooms and held in-person presentations with local Corebridge advisors, of whom there are 38 supporting the organization.
“We wanted to meet their members where they are and be able to communicate with them in the manner that most resonated with them to receive this information,” Fiedler said.
On the digital side, the team organized email campaigns and held Microsoft Teams presentations with live streaming options. Corebridge also recorded the presentations for future playback.
Corebridge assigns an advisor to each participant, who they can reach out to as needed, and offers a lead advisor located in Atlanta, which is also the headquarters for The Salvation Army Southern Territory. This lead advisor connects employees who are unsure of who their advisor is and will also set up meetings and presentations.
“We have a wide variety of employment types, and our responsibilities for those employees is to get all people in one room,” Strobel said. “It’s almost impossible in most of these locations, so we do communicate to participants that they have the option to speak to an advisor and let them make the decisions on whether they want to contact them.”
Since working with Corebridge, The Salvation Army Southern Territory has reached a 95% participation rate. Average account balances increased 123% from June 2023 to June 2025, and the average contribution amount grew 65% throughout that same period.
“To bring a comprehensive communications program—we couldn’t have done it without Corebridge,” he added. “We tackled it in every way possible, and they were with us every step of the way.”
In the years ahead, Corebridge plans to continue educating members on maximizing their financial and retirement plan benefits.
The Salvation Army Southern Territory’s 401(a) plan will also officially close in 2028. To prepare for the termination, Corebridge has already began devising education for participants, Fiedler said. “Even though that’s a couple of years away, we want to make sure that we get in front of that,” she concluded.
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with nearly a decade of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado.
