Digital advisory program can help employees plan for retirement

While many employees may have a pretty clear picture of how they would like to live in retirement, they may be a little less certain about how they’ll get there. How much will they need? To which account should they contribute and how much? And once retired, how much of their retirement income should they withdraw each year? Employees are looking for help to answer these questions and understand what steps they can take to pursue their individual goals.

To better inform their retirement strategies, employees want their employers to provide tools and resources to help them:

Estimate and plan for general expenses in retirement¹

Estimate and plan for health care expenses¹

Did you know?

Although Americans believe they will need at least $1 million to retire comfortably, the average retirement savings is only $88,400.² We suggest that employees may need at least 85% of pre-retirement, after-tax income to maintain their current lifestyle.

Innovative and individualized support for employees

Employers recognize the important role they play in supporting their employees on the path to retirement, whether through their workplace benefits program or providing access to financial education. The trend now is toward leveraging innovative solutions that can help them provide the individualized support employees need at scale.

For example, Personal Retirement Strategy (PRS), a digital investment advisory program for 401(k) participants in Bank of America recordkept plans, offers an opportunity to engage employees in retirement planning in a very personalized and easy-to-use way. This innovative program connects employees to retirement income planning resources and individualized advice and guidance that can help them take charge of their financial futures.

Employers can also complement the PRS experience by offering employees the option to connect with a specialist—in person or virtually—to help answer their questions about retirement and work with them to create a plan aligned with their personal financial situation and goals.

With PRS, participants can enjoy:

Flexible tools to model different scenarios to help make informed decisions today for brighter futures
Goals-based asset allocation recommendation based on an employee’s personal financial situation
Personalized suggestions to help employees understand where and how much to contribute, offering an optimal order of contributions to their accounts (retirement, Health Savings Accounts, IRAs, etc.)
Actionable insights that provide simple, incremental steps to consider now to prepare for a more financially secure retirement
Option to use Merrill Managed, a service that can recommend a specific mix of funds from the plan’s investment menu and ongoing account management, for a fee

Watch a new video that helps bring the PRS experience to life. As plans adopt PRS, we’ll make this video available to employees, along with helpful communications to drive awareness of this important benefit.

¹ Bank of America 2024 Workplace Benefits Report.

² Bank of America Proprietary Market Landscape Insights, January 2024. Surveys conducted among general consumers (clients and prospective clients).

Personal Retirement Strategy is an online investment advisory program sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. (“MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) that uses a probabilistic approach to determine the likelihood that participants in the program will accumulate sufficient total assets to achieve their annual retirement income goal. The recommendations provided by Personal Retirement Strategy may include a higher level of investment risk than a participant may be personally comfortable with. Participants are strongly advised to consider their personal goals, overall risk tolerance, and retirement horizon before accepting any recommendations made by Personal Retirement Strategy. Participants should carefully review the explanation of the methodology used, including key assumptions and limitations, as well as a description of services and related fees which is provided in the Personal Retirement Strategy Brochure (ADV Part 2A). It can be obtained through Benefits OnLine® or through the Retirement Benefits Contact Center. Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select.

IMPORTANT: The projections or other information shown in the Personal Retirement Strategy program 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.