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Retirement Planning Is No. 1 Cited Planning Activity
Americans Wished They Were Better At Doing
BOSTON, October 24, 2006 - Fidelity Investments today announced the launch of myPlanSM, a new guidance program designed to help individual investors and employees break through the inertia associated with retirement planning and savings and take actionable steps towards achieving their financial goals.
New Fidelity research on Americans' planning behaviors indicates that while most people are prone to procrastination, the majority (74 percent) of individuals consider themselves planners - citing vacations, birthdays and holidays as activities they enjoy planning.1 That said, less than one-third (29 percent) of the nation consider themselves good planners when it comes to their finances, which may be why just one-in-four working Americans have a clear retirement plan in place today.
"Our research shows that the majority of Americans wish they were doing a better job planning and saving for their retirement, but procrastination and inertia may prevent many from ever succeeding," said Robert L. Reynolds, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments, the nation's No. 1 retirement services provider. "We know that every American is a planner to some extent, but understanding what motivates individuals to not only create a retirement plan, but also take action and save more, involves behavioral issues, which we factored into the design of the myPlan offering."
The myPlan Program
Designed to change how Americans think about and approach retirement planning and savings, the first phase of Fidelity's myPlan initiative was unveiled today at a news conference in New York City with Fidelity's senior executive team and a panel of well-respected behavioral experts.
The myPlan program features a combination of easy-to-use interactive planning tools that allow users to develop a retirement plan with clear action steps to help improve savings. It also provides alerts and monitoring to help investors stay on track, offers new guidance content for self-learning and, in future versions, will feature a series of online exercises designed to help users envision their life goals - all available at no cost to investors.
"With Americans shouldering more responsibility to plan and manage savings for their own retirement, we recognize that now is the time to motivate all individuals to create a retirement plan, by making the process less complex, more engaging, and freely available to everyone, whether you're a Fidelity customer or not," said Ellyn A. McColgan, president, Fidelity Brokerage Company.
myPlan Tools - myPlan SnapshotSM and myPlanSM Retirement Quick Check
Fidelity's research shows that 58 percent of working Americans feel the hardest part of planning their finances is just getting started.2 The myPlan program makes planning easier by breaking down the planning process into smaller, simpler steps that are easier to follow and less time consuming.
The myPlan Snapshot, available in the coming weeks, is an interactive calculator that estimates the amount of money individuals may need to reach their retirement savings goals. By answering five simple questions in a matter of minutes, the myPlan Snapshot will guide users to take action, whether that means creating a more detailed plan or considering saving more through greater use of available retirement accounts.
Fidelity also launched an easier-to-use and more engaging version of one of its industry leading3 online planning tools, myPlan Retirement Quick Check. In just 30 minutes, users can create a retirement plan that estimates how much monthly income they will need to meet their retirement goal, the progress they've made with their current savings strategy and what it may take in additional monthly savings to reach their goal. The online planner also provides a variety of clear calls-to-action, such as increasing workplace contributions, opening an IRA such as an automatic simpleStart IRA, purchasing a variable annuity, rebalancing portfolio assets, consolidating accounts or other action steps that can potentially boost retirement savings.
myPlan for the Workplace
The myPlan tools will be integrated and made available to the more than 20 million workers Fidelity services through its employer services company. Employees can utilize myPlan to see the combined efforts of their defined contribution and personal savings as they relate to their overall retirement readiness level.
"The recent passage of the Pension Protection Act has redefined the formula for breaking inertia in the workplace by making it easier for employers to automatically enroll workers into workplace savings plans, systematically increase savings, and provide lifecycle fund default options," said Abigail P. Johnson, president, Fidelity Employer Services Company. "myPlan takes the formula one step further by helping employees create a retirement plan and track their individual progress towards achieving plan goals."
myPlan Future Vision -Life Goal Envisioning
Next year, Fidelity will deliver automated alerts that will help users manage their plans from an asset allocation and savings rate perspective and allow them to track their progress along the way.
In the future, Fidelity will also offer myPlan users the ability to envision and identify their personal life goals through a series of online exercises that involve stimulating the mind through explorative actions such as word association and universal goal sharing.
The first phase of Fidelity's myPlan program will be available to every American investor in the coming weeks at Fidelity.com/myPlan and to employees at Netbenefits.com.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of more than $2.7 trillion, including managed assets of $1.3 trillion as of September 30, 2006. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 22 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.
The Retirement Quick Check tool's illustrations result from running a minimum of 250 hypothetical market simulations. The market return data used to generate the illustration is intended to provide you with a general idea of how asset mixes have performed historically. Our analysis assumes a level of diversity within each asset class consistent with a market index benchmark that may differ from the diversity of your own portfolio. Please note that the projections do not reflect the impact of any transaction costs or management and servicing fees (except variable annuities); if these had been included, the projected account balances would have been lower.
IMPORTANT: The projections or other information generated by the tool regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time.
Retirement Quick Check is an educational tool developed by Strategic Advisers Inc., a registered investment adviser and a Fidelity Investments company, and offered for use by Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member NYSE, SIPC, or by Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc.
Institutional products and services provided by Fidelity Investments Institutional Services.
1Planning Behaviors and Beliefs, Fidelity Investments, 2006. Data was collected by Richard Day Research through an online survey of more than 1,500 respondents representing the broad working population.
2Planning Behaviors and Beliefs, Fidelity Investments, 2006. Data was collected by Richard Day Research through an online survey of more than 1,500 respondents representing the broad working population.
3Retirement Planning Tools, E-Monitor Report, July 2006.
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Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC
100 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110
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