Employers around the country are making one tough decision after another for the present and future operations of their businesses. Likewise, our employees are making life-changing decisions based on our changing circumstances and available information from day to day.
Whether your employees are working remotely with the all-day news playing in the background, or in their regular workstations getting news feeds on their mobile phones every half hour – they know that the volatile stock market is not helping their retirement plans.
We reached out to our partner at Mutual of America For The Scoop
Catherine Freeman, Mutual of America Group Account Representative, was excited to help us gather accurate information in this chaotic time so that we could be calm subject matter experts (just like her.)
We asked Catherine for tips that we should be sharing with you about communicating with your employees about the retirement plans that you sponsor. Check out the video conference that we recorded so that you could get the answers right from the source!
Your Take-Aways
In the video link above, our closest friend from Mutual of America shared these tips:
- Keep calm and remember that the stock market isn’t a short game. The market will recover. This is a great time to buy the dips and assess if your individual investment strategy is appropriately aggressive or conservative.
- Plan sponsors (That’s you) are not brokers. You should be well versed in understanding your own retirement plan’s Summary Plan Description. The plan sponsor representatives in your organization need to be comfortable reiterating that information to employees and teaching employees how to read the plan description on their own.
- Plan Sponsors should direct employees to their retirement plan broker for individual investment strategy questions. Plan sponsors from your company are not licensed to make investment recommendations, so just avoid getting yourself into those conversations with employees.
- If employees feel like they need to pull funds from their retirement accounts, the plan sponsor from your business should be able to understand and communicate the difference between loan options and withdrawals. This information is spelled out in your Summary Plan Description.
EANE Partners Are YOUR Partners
Mutual of America (MOA) is EANE’s vetted retirement plan partner service. That means that EANE members do not have to be a customer of Mutual of America’s to benefit from their subject matter expertise. Catherine Freeman, of Mutual of America, has offered EANE Members her consultative time right now if you are unable to get a hold of your own broker. MOA doesn’t need to be your plan sponsor in order to help you if you’re an EANE Member. If you have questions about your own Summary Plan Description, they can help you. MOA can help you set up education with you and your HR team to better understand the retirement plan you’re offering your employees. MOA doesn’t have to be your broker, they’re available to share broad strokes education about the market and lend perspective that can help your answer your employee’s retirement plan questions.