5 Questions About the Participant Education Center

At BPAS, we understand that planning for retirement can be complicated. That’s why we created our Participant Education Center. This new web portal provides users with retirement planning tools that give them the ability to learn, research, interact, and plan. It does this by providing a variety of tools and resources including:

• Investment prospectus and fact sheets
• Investment glossary
• Video lessons explaining key concepts
• Planning calculators
• And much more

It also has an interactive “Ask an Expert” forum where you can find answers related to your BPAS retirement account, or ask general retirement planning questions.

To understand the potential of this exciting new resource, we spoke with Brian Nicholson, Certified Retirement Savings Professional and Senior Sales Relationship Manager at BPAS.

What were the most important reasons to create the Participant Education Center?

Our data tells us that many participants are not on track to be “retirement ready” and some aren’t even close. We want to help fix that problem; that’s the primary driver behind the creation of the Participant Education Center. The Participant Education Center is designed to engage participants in a way that inspires them to take the necessary steps to improve their chances of a successful retirement outcome.

Sponsors, Participants, and our Financial Partners should note that this is “Version 1.0” of the Participant Education Center. It’s important for us to have something that really works for participants, not just a site we can tell people about for marketing purposes. That would be like building a boat and not sealing all the leaks. It may look good on the outside but it’s not going to get you very far.

That’s why we will continue to add retirement planning tools and material to the site over time, to create an increasingly robust education platform that is responsive to the needs of our participants.

The Participant Education Center offers a great selection of retirement planning tools and calculators. Which do you feel are the most helpful to your customers and why?

When we were drawing up plans for the Participant Education Center, our goal was to create something that would elicit the behaviors that would help improve a participant’s overall financial situation. In order to achieve this goal, we knew that we needed to connect with participants through a number of different channels and include tools and materials that would address a wide variety of learning styles. We also wanted to make sure that we could speak to a wide range of participant issues.

Participants visiting the site will have different needs, so each participant will find some of our retirement planning tools and materials more helpful than others. All of the tools on the site are meaningful and relevant; the one a participant finds most helpful will depend on what is happening in their life at that time.

Who do you feel will benefit most from using the Participant Education Center?

The Participant Education Center was constructed with the “plan participant” as our main audience member, so they will benefit the most from its use. The tools, courses, and other information available within the site are designed to engage and increase the participant’s knowledge around various financial concepts.

That said, our Plan Sponsors can also benefit. They are coming around to the reality that the financial health of an employee can have a positive or negative impact on the company’s bottom line. If the Participant Education Center can help them to improve retirement readiness, then Sponsors should benefit from those positive changes in the financial health of their employee base.

What can a customer do to get the most value from the “Ask an Expert” service?

The “Ask an Expert” area of the Participant Education Center is basically split into two components, Account Related Questions and our General Retirement Planning Questions forum.

The Account Related Questions section is designed for those common “account specific” questions participants have from time to time, such as are they eligible for a hardship distribution, or can they take loan? Participants can submit a secure email to, or speak directly with, one of our customer service experts via telephone to have their personal question answered.

On the other hand, some participants may want to know the answer to a broader question like the pro/cons of taking the loan or the hardship, or what happens if they forget to designate their beneficiary. For these types of questions, participants can visit our General Retirement Planning Questions forum to review other questions that have been asked or submit a new question. Our team of consultants will respond directly to the participant via email, and if the participant agrees, we’ll anonymously post their question and answer in the Forum for others to view.

“Ask an Expert” is a great way for participants to ask questions that relate to their personal situation. Everybody needs guidance and this area of the Participant Education Center offers multiple ways receive that guidance.

What insight do you hope a customer who has visited the Participant Education Center would walk away with that they didn’t have before?

We want our Participants to improve their financial situation and chances of a successful retirement. It won’t happen overnight and it may take some work but it can be done.

If you’re looking for more information about your retirement plan, we invite you to visit the Participant Education Center today. Want to start making plans for the future? Visit our website to learn more about BPAS.