What the districts need

Schools Districts have two primary challenges they face in administering their Supplemental Retirement Plans program:

1. Management of the Supplemental Retirement Plan program

The first issue is the management of the program. Here are a few of the major concerns:

• Consolidation
  Districts would like to point employees to a single site that has been populated with district-specific resources, such as Salary Reduction Agreements (SRA’s), information on loans and withdrawals, and
  relevant links to resources, such as their Third Part Administrator (TPA).
• Maintenance
  Maintaining an accurate list of approved Supplemental Retirement Plan providers and their associated advisors is another major challenge for the districts. In short, districts need an effective way to
  update the provider list.
• Verification
  Hand-in-hand with list maintenance is verification. It is essential that districts verify that approved advisors have been fingerprinted and/or have passed a background check (some districts may require
  background verification in order for providers to be invited on campus).
• Code of Conduct
  Another stipulation that districts need is a “Code of Conduct” that advisors agree to adhere to when on campus interacting with staff.

2. Financial education and compliance with rules

The second challenge for districts when it comes to the Supplemental Retirement Plans program is administering financial education for employees, along with staying compliant with the IRS rules on Universal Availability. Note that the resources ERP provides should be used to supplement any on-site efforts currently in place. Here are the challenges:

• Product Neutral Education
  While financial education is essential, it is also essential that it be “product neutral”, in other words, not favoring one solution over another. Districts deem this information to be an
  important win-win, because not only does it help their current employees by helping them to be more retirement ready, it also helps the district itself with recruiting and retention of talent
• Communicating more value to employees
  Often employees only think about the value of their salary, without considering the full range of benefits. Thus, ,,districts would like to make sure employees understand the
  value of ALL of their benefits, including: the State Retirement System, SSI, Supplemental Retirement accounts and retiree health insurance, etc.
• Participation
  Districts also consider getting as close as possible to full participation to be a very important goal. To that end, here is what one district had to say about our program: “I just wanted to send you
  all an email to say THANK YOU for all of the hard work we have done as a team to make Queen Creek employees more financially literate and aware. Participation has gone up approximately 250% since we began this endeavor about
  15 months ago. My goal has always been 100% participation, but I am an overachiever who firmly believes that people should have control of their own money and their financial future.”- Brian Lockery, Director of Business Services,
  Queen Creek Unified School District
• Compliance with Universal Availability (UA) requirements
  In an environment in which the IRS has opened inquiries and, in some cases, levied fines for non-compliance, the districts recognize the importance of staying
  current with UA requirements.

The ERP Solution: The District Members Benefits

1. Administrator Management Page for Each District

As part of our Platform, every district will have an Administrator Management Page to be managed by a "Designated Manager" (i.e., a designated employee of your district). The management page, which includes the following types of information, is used to create and update an "Employee Retirement Resource Page" that is publicly available for the employees of each district

• Contact information for each district representative (HR staff)
• Salary reduction agreements
• Link to your Third Party Administrator (TPA)
• Spotlight important information specific to your plan (i.e. loans, etc.)
• Code of Conduct “template” available for advisors to follow when interacting with your school sites and employees. The Code of Conduct is editable to meet your specific district needs.

2. Create List of Approved Providers and Advisors

Our ERP Platform also includes the ability for your HR/Benefits staff to quickly and easily (within minutes!) generate a list, for your specific district, of approved Supplemental Retirement Plan providers and advisors.

To make the list more interactive and helpful, advisors have the capability to include biographical information in video/text, enabling staff to “meet”, evaluate, and more accurately identify who you want to work with in creating your
own District Playbook.

Additionally, one of the many benefits of our Platform is that we provide periodic updates to ensure the accuracy of the list.

In short, using the ERP Platform, you can reduce the workload of your HR and Benefits staff!

The Lists: How, Who, and Which

We believe that our lists are of the utmost importance to you because, at the end of the day, it is relationships that DRIVE increased participation in your plan. Thus, the more comprehensive and better managed our information is for
you, you can make better – more lasting – provider and advisor decisions.

Now, let's take a look at the how, who, and which of the lists:

3. Employee Library of Resources

As part of offering “product-neutral” educational opportunities to teachers, ERP has developed a library of resources. Each library is available to be deployed by member districts in just minutes! Resources include:

• Articles
• Videos (animated and live)
• Podcasts o�abinars

About our libraries

Here are some of the product-neutral resources found in our libraries:

1. Reference Materials

   Employees can learn about important topics, such as 403(B), 457(b), Social Security, State Retirement, etc. We also have useful calculators and planning tools.

2. Video Series

   This “drip campaign” Video Series offers districts the ability to send videos out at predetermined intervals. Each video is no longer than three minutes and can be attached to an email that is sent by
   the district. Videos and other materials sent directly by the district (1) help enhance the perception that the district is offering employees value and (2) are more likely to be opened/viewed when from a familiar and trusted
   source.

   Other details about the videos:

    

   Each video is on a different topic and is product-neutral

• 

Each contains a call-to-action prompting viewers to read an article or contact one of the advisors from your district-approved list of advisors Incentives are offers, such as gift cards, for individuals that watch the video or request information from one of the advisors. Research shows that "making it fun" dramatically increases the participation rate.

1. Demographic Specific Content

ERP also maintains video and article curriculum targeted for specific demographics or situations. Such content includes curriculum for:

• New Teachers
• Employees Nearing Retirement
• Market Volatility

Compliance with Universal Availability (UA) Requirements

Many districts are not aware of the IRS requirement to notify their employees that (1) they have a district-approved Supplemental Retirement Plan and (2) they are offering them a meaningful opportunity to enroll. The ERP Video Series
helps districts to comply with these requirements.

Better yet, this compliance piece is simple for the district to manage. When an employee watches a video sent by the district, the employee is required to log-in with their work email and district.

Later, the Designated Manager can run a report of all activity, which can then be provided to the IRS to verify UA compliance efforts. (Note: While this is an important step in compliance, be aware that you should also follow the instructions
of your Third Party Administrator, including sending UA notices at least annually.)

Your information is safe with us!
We will NEVER use your employee’s information for any kind of marketing unless they request it.

5. Employee Retirement Resource Page for Each District

As part of the ERP Platform, EVERY district will have their own district Employee Supplemental Retirement Resource Page for employees. This page focuses ONLY on supplemental retirement plans and is best used as an adjunct to the district’s
own FIR or benefits page. The page includes: Approved providers (updated regularly) Third Party Administrator contact information SRA forms Key information regarding loans and withdrawals, etc.

NOTE Educators Retirement Plan (ERP) District Member Benefits Platform is not designed to replace anything that you are already doing. We encourage you to continue to help your employees plan for retirement in every way possible, including
on site presentations, benefits fairs, etc.

Educate your employees on the retirement issue

Make the time today to educate your employees on retirement opportunities in Arizona and be prepared for the IRS Universal Availability compliance.

Our participation in 403b and 457 investment products increased, we believe, due to the introduction of Dr Mark Adkins Retirement Lesson Plan video series that we began in the Spring of 2018. We have seen an increase of over 19% participation
since the video series was introduced.”

 

Janis Peel
Payroll & Benefits Supervisor Dysart Unified School District