Retirement Dashboard at principal.com saves time, improves
efficiency
DES MOINES, Iowa--(Business Wire)--
Retirement Dashboard, a new online account management tool from
the Principal Financial Group(R), helps retirement-focused financial
professionals save time and work smarter with fast, tailored access to
client data.
Located in the Principal eFinancial Professional(SM) (Principal
eFP) Web site at www.principal.com, Retirement Dashboard gives
financial professionals secure, 24/7 access to information on their
qualified retirement plan clients with The Principal(R).
Retirement Dashboard provides access to at-a-glance client
summaries to help financial professionals evaluate their book of
business and determine priorities. They can drill down for more
detailed information such as client-specific investment options and
on-demand, downloadable reports for:
-- account value comparisons;
-- distribution information;
-- investment options;
-- investment balances; and
-- participation rates.
"Retirement Dashboard gives financial professionals an edge by
helping them better manage their business, and in the end, deliver
top-notch service to their clients," said Dan McGee, vice president
and managing director, Retirement Distribution. "For example, they can
quickly see which clients need to comply with the Pension Protection
Act qualified default investment alternatives provision without
tracking down individual client data."
Financial professionals can download data into an Excel or PDF
file, allowing them to easily sort and analyze information. They can
even combine it with client data from other retirement plan service
providers.
Support staff are able to view client data through the "delegate"
function of Retirement Dashboard. If financial professionals or their
support staff have questions about a particular client, they can send
an e-mail directly to the client's service representative at The
Principal.
"Some competitors (of The Principal) have similar data, but it's
not all centralized like the Retirement Dashboard," said Kris
Krikorian of A.G. Edwards. "The Principal is the only one with a
roll-up page for the whole block."
A new compliance tab allows financial professionals to view the
compliance testing results of all qualified retirement plan clients in
one place. Compliance information is updated as soon as it becomes
available, including status of actual deferral percentage, actual
contribution percentage and pass/fail testing.
"By adding the compliance tab, we're arming financial
professionals with data they need in the heat of compliance season,"
said Sarah Schmitz, Retirement Dashboard project leader. Schmitz said
the information allows financial professionals to be proactive in
their discussions with plan sponsors regarding:
-- plan design;
-- participation levels;
-- deferral rates; and
-- refunds and top heavy funding requirements (in some cases).
"We've received nothing but positive feedback from users so far,"
McGee said. "We're currently working to deliver additional client data
and plan to launch a government reporting tab this spring."
About the Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group(R) (The Principal (R))(1) is a
leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a
wide range of financial products and services, including retirement
and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking
through its diverse family of financial services companies. A member
of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $311.1 billion
in assets under management2 and serves some 18.6 million customers
worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and
the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more
information, visit www.principal.com.
(1) "The Principal Financial Group" and "The Principal" are
registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a
member of the Principal Financial Group.
(2) As of December 31, 2007
#1733022010
Principal Financial Group
Susan Houser, 515-248-2268
houser.susan@principal.com
or
Jaime Naig, 515-247-0798
naig.jaime@principal.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
