In their latest publication, “Setting a New Standard: E-Delivery Best Practices for the Retirement Industry”, Oculus Partners’ President, Cynthia Hayes and her firm have issued a challenge to the retirement industry to hold themselves to a new standard in achieving widespread adoption of edelivery.
“It’s time,” said Cynthia Hayes, President, Oculus Partners. “We’ve traditionally relied on our relationships with Washington to drive change in e-delivery governance and despite those efforts, change has been slow. We believe that, together, we can make substantial progress in helping participants adopt e-delivery while we are advocating a more modern set of e-delivery rules from Washington.”
That progress, according to Oculus, will come via a set of shared, best practices across the retirement industry focused on dramatically increasing e-delivery adoption. Adoption standards and benchmarks can play an important role in selecting providers who are truly committed to the robust outreach programs that meet participants’ needs and motivate them to engage with their retirement programs. These standards can be put in place while continuing to advocate for regulatory improvements, and in fact can help the industry in getting ready to implement changes from Washington when they happen.
“E-delivery adoption strategies too often begin with a regulatory lens, and are built one communication, one legislative requirement and one cost-saving target at a time, resulting in our current state of confusion and widely disparate adoption patterns across providers,” Hayes said.
Hayes offered examples of providers quoting ranges of 10% to 80% e-delivery adoption among participants as well as a 40-percent swing in participants establishing web credentials. “We have put together a set of industry best practices starting with the vision of the digital experience and the needs of participants, and at the same time dramatically lowering costs for the provider.” Hayes indicated, “These best practices can be applied within the current regulatory environment and evolve as more modern regulations are adopted.”
Oculus, whose research is based on observations accrued over 10 years working with more than 35 clients across the industry, offers e-delivery best practices organized within a framework that recognizes three critical areas:
1. E-Delivery Enablement
2. Sponsor Promotion & Tools
3. The Participant Experience
“We have a chance to do something special as an industry,” Hayes said. “Holding ourselves – advisors, consultants, asset managers and recordkeepers – to a best practice standard could be the catalyst our industry needs to see sweeping success in e-delivery adoption,” Hayes said. Oculus Partners’ newest paper is available at www.oculuspartners.com.
About Oculus Partners
Oculus Partners is a strategic consulting firm focused on financial services, concentrating in retirement and wealth management. Formed in 2008, Oculus has applied our vision, insight, and innovative spirit to benefit over 35 clients including banks and broker/dealers, asset managers, insurers, recordkeepers, clearing agents and custodians, and technology companies. Our clients have a few things in common — a desire to accelerate growth, maximize relationships, and enhance overall business health. Oculus is uniquely positioned to help, given the depth of our consultants’ industry experience and our strong partnering approach. Our passion lies not only in developing high impact strategies, but in helping to implement them in a practical manner. Simply put, we help our clients grow their businesses in healthy and sustainable ways.
For more information, contact Cynthia Hayes at chayes@oculuspartners.com or 404-606-1768.