Wachovia Retirement Services Extends Customer Service Hours to 401(k) Participants

Wachovia Retirement Services Extends Customer Service Hours to 401(k)
Participants

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wachovia Retirement
Services, the institutional retirement business of Wachovia, announced today
that it has temporarily extended customer service call center hours to help
participants during this time of financial markets volatility. In addition to
industry-leading hours of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern
time, the retirement call center will also be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Eastern time on Saturdays effective this weekend.
Over the last 60 days, Wachovia's retirement call center has seen an
almost 30 percent increase in call volume on a year-over-year basis.
Participants have been calling to rebalance portfolios to more conservative
fund options, and in some cases to seek a distribution, a loan or change in
savings rate.
"These are extraordinary times for the individual investor, and we want to
be more available so we can help them through their thought process as they
take steps to adjust to market volatility," said Joe Ready, head of Wachovia
Retirement Services. "We feel it's important to respond to the increased
volume of calls by expanding the timeframe for participants to make inquiries
and changes to their accounts outside of the traditional Monday through Friday
work week."
Wachovia Retirement Services administers over 6,700 retirement plans,
manages $100.9 billion assets under administration and serves 2.2 million
pensioners.
In early September, Wachovia Retirement Services began offering a free
retirement consultation to participants, which is accessed by calling an 800
number. The consultation is offered by Wachovia's retirement plan specialists
who help participants to determine if they are enrolled in the plan and on
track to replace 80 percent of their pre-retirement income at the time of
retirement based on an assessment of their current contributions. Wachovia
Retirement Services advocates that employees try to contribute at least 6
percent of their pre-tax income and invest appropriately for their time
horizon to retirement to maximize the potential to be "on track" for
retirement.
During the month of September, of those participants who were offered the
consultation, 32 percent agreed to speak with a retirement consultant. Of
those who agreed to a consultation, 11 percent were on track for retirement,
which is the same figure as those who accepted the retirement consultation
during the pilot offering.
"We continue to believe in the value of a retirement consultation," Ready
said. "One-to-one dialogue is the best way for a person in pre-retirement,
working years to get a realistic picture for what their progress is toward
building a retirement plan that is on track."
At Wachovia, any customer or prospective customer who visits a financial
center or calls can obtain a free retirement consultation.
About Wachovia Retirement Services
Wachovia Retirement Services is part of the Retirement and Investment
Products Group, a division of Wachovia's Capital Management Group. Wachovia
Retirement Services provides fully bundled defined contribution, defined
benefit and nonqualified retirement plans to both small and large companies,
unions and municipalities. More complete information about Wachovia Retirement
Services is accessible online at wachovia.com/401k.
About Wachovia
Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB) is one of the nation's largest diversified
financial services companies, with assets of $764.4 billion and market
capitalization of $7.6 billion at September 30, 2008. Wachovia provides a
broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and
corporate and investment banking products and services to customers through
3,300 retail financial centers in 21 states from Connecticut to Florida and
west to Texas and California, and nationwide retail brokerage, mortgage
lending and auto finance businesses. Globally, clients are served in selected
corporate and institutional sectors and through more than 40 international
offices. Our retail brokerage operations under the Wachovia Securities brand
name manage more than $1.0 trillion in client assets through 14,600 financial
advisors in 1,500 offices nationwide. Online banking is available at
wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com; and
investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com.
SOURCE Wachovia Corporation

Amy H. Jones of Wachovia Corporation, +1-704-383-4995