Alight Solutions, a provider of cloud-based benefits administration and HR solutions, has introduced a new retirement platform formed in partnership with investment management and research firm AllianceBernstein and financial software and wealth management services provider Personal Capital.
Alight’s new WealthSpark platform incorporates AB’s investment portfolios and Personal Capital’s digital wealth management tools to give employees greater insight into their retirement savings. The platform’s investment recommendations are based on up to 18 individualized data points reflecting employees’ individual financial situations, including investment accounts outside of their retirement plans, their partners’ financial situation and any financial obligations—such as paying for a child’s college education or care for an aging parent—they may have.
The platform also helps employees better understand and make decisions about their personal finances, from every day budgeting to managing life events such as paying back student loans, saving to buy a home or planning for retirement.
Employees benefit because the Alight program helps them bridge their personal finances with their savings goals, asserts Alison Borland, Alight’s executive vice president of defined contribution solutions. “Most default investment options do not recognize and appreciate the complexities of people’s individual financial situation or the competing priorities they face,” she notes.
To support her claim that financial wellbeing applications work to employees’ advantage, Borland points to a recent Alight study in which 53% of employees with access to such programs reported feeling in control of their financial future versus 43% among employees without access to such tools.
In keeping with Borland’s comments, Jennifer DeLong, head of defined contribution at AB, says their investment portfolios will combine asset allocation with technology to deliver employees a more personal participation experience.
“By better understanding a participant’s individual circumstances, we can create a series of optimized glide paths to tailor outcomes to participants’ unique financial objective,” DeLong says.
Jay Shah, CEO of Personal Capital, adds that WealthSpark also serves as the qualified default investment alternative in an employer-provided savings plan, helping users build for retirement by providing more accurate projections of their future savings.
“WealthSpark makes it easy for employees to implement a holistic financial plan, free from paying high fees that eat away at their nest egg,” Shah maintains.
