DC Plans and Smartphone Technology
At our 1st ever TPSU program in New Mexico (and our 1st hybrid TPSU program ever), 20 industry professionals engaged in a discussion about how we can leverage technology to engage DC plan participants. A better question might be how can the DC industry learn from and leverage smartphone technology.
Josh Haynes from Empower noted that 65% of people access their email through their smartphones and, 95% of people with a mobile device, 95% have a smartphone. Never mind that we should be engaging plan participants through their smartphone, we should learn how some smartphone manufacturers like Apple make a really sophisticated, complicated and powerful (life changing?) device so intuitive that almost no one even reads the instructions. Can we apply this lesson to DC plans?
Taking it a step further, can we leverage the rich data on record keeping systems to personalize the plans and messages via smart phones and, as TPSU Adjunct Lecturer Curtiss LaCross suggested, use peer data to initiative and encourage good behavior.
So what’s a hybrid TPSU program? There are certain areas of the country that do not have enough DC plans in a concentrated area to support a Zone. But advisors like Curtiss LaCross are so passionate about plan sponsor education that he is willing to do the majority of the recruiting leveraging TPSU brand, curriculum and logistics. Maybe we can reach all employers.
