National Save For Retirement Week


United States House of Representatives Passes National Save for Retirement Week

A Resolution has been passed by the House (H. Res. 1481) calling on the week of October 17, 2010 as National Save for Retirement Week.  The Resolution was introduced by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Sam Johnson (R-TX).  Both Schwartz and Johnson are members of the House Committee on Ways & Means and are active members on retirement and pension related matters.

View Representative Schwartz's Press Release

Celebrating and promoting National Save for Retirement Week is a great opportunity to promote a culture of saving with your employees.  In order to make 2010 National Save for Retirement Week (NS4RW) a success for you and your employees, you will want to begin planning soon. This is also an excellent opportunity to work closely with your Retirement Plan Services Provider and get their help in supporting your employees in working toward achieving a secure retirement.

Goals for National Save for Retirement Week:
• Make employees more aware of how critical it is to save now for their financial future
• Promote the benefits of getting started saving for retirement today
• Encourage employees to take full advantage of their employer-sponsored plans by increasing their contributions

The following are proposed steps you can take to make sure your support of NS4RW is a success.

April: Contact Your Retirement Plan Service Provider to Discuss NS4RW Promotion
April should be used to begin conversations with your Retirement Plan Services Provider to discuss what materials, support and resources they can provide to help support NS4RW.

July/August: Begin Strategizing and Discussing Details
July and August should be used to discuss and start to prepare for the upcoming NS4RW promotion and activities. While it may seem that there is a lot of time prior to the event, organizing this type of activity is much easier if done in steps and planned out over time.

For August, it is recommended that you continue conversations with your Retirement Plan Services Provider to analyze resources and materials and you should consider holding a kick-off meeting. Prior to the kick-off meeting, you will want to review the resources and materials available through NAGDCA.

September: Preparation and Planning
The month of September is the timeframe where you will want to start to finalize the project details. This includes:

  • Confirm planned support by elected officials. For example a proclamation declaring October 17th- 23rd National Save for Retirement Week.  Here are some sample proclamations: 
    Multnomah County       New York        City of Tucson         Wyoming
  • Arrange for the materials you will want to hand out during NS4RW. Plan Sponsors in the past have had balloons, brochures, stickers, etc. Materials that tie into the activities that you have planned are always the most effective. For example, if you will be having a workshop, you could use NS4RW pens or pads of paper. Or for a picnic or movie, you could provide popcorn bags with a “Saving For Retirement” message.  These types of materials often have a longer production time and therefore should be finalized in early September.
  • Finalize location of the NS4RW meetings and activities. Reserving and finalizing rooms, public areas, etc. at this point it is important so that communications can be built around this information.
  • Order food or giveaways for the event.
  • Schedule planned presenters and any activities that require a reservations.
  • Review and approve communication materials. This includes flyers, e-mails, lunch room table toppers, additional signage, etc. 
  • Identify and prepare for delivery methods.
    o For example, do you want to mail a postcard to participants' homes? Do you want the mailing to arrive prior to NS4RW or at the very beginning? This will affect when you will need materials. Also, don't forget about mail files, which can take some time to prepare.
    o Or, do you want an interoffice mailer promoting the events occurring?
  • Prepare and receive approval on press releases for distribution during October.  Here is a Sample Press Release

October: Finalize Details and Program Implementation  During early October, you will want to finalize and confirm any outstanding details for your National Save for Retirement Week plans.

  • The first and second week in October you will want to:
    • Receive materials you want distributed prior to the event through the mail or interoffice. This includes mail files if appropriate.
    • Confirm communications promoting activities during the week are placed in high impact locations.
    • Confirm proclamation has been approved and is ready to be promoted.
    • Prepare press release(s) for distribution.
    • If you would like to receive attendance by a local reporter at one of your activities, you will want to contact and send out a press release to the local press the week of October 4th. Follow-up with a phone call.
    • This would also be a good time to determine baselines in order to measure success later. For example, the number of participants, asset allocation, contribution levels, etc.
  • The third week of October you will want to:
    • Mail out any material you have designed to arrive during NS4RW.
    • For notice in the paper about the events occurring, a press release can go out a couple days prior or during NS4RW.

Read Success Stories from National Save for Retirement Week Supporters
2009 National Save for Retirement Week Award Winners
2009 National Save for Retirement Week Survey Results

NAGDCA would like to thank the following NAGDCA Industry Members and Partners for their support! 

American Century Investments
American Savings Education Council
Arnerich Massena & Associates
Charles Schwab
CitiStreet LLC
Fidelity
Great-West Retirement Services
Hartford Life Insurance Company
ICMA-RC
ING Financial Advisers, LLC
Lord Abbet & Co.
Mercer Human Resource Consulting
Mercer Investment Consulting, Inc.
Mutual of Omaha
Nationwide Retirement Solutions
Prudential Retirement
Putnam Investments
Security Benefit Group
Segal Advisers
Segal Company
SST Benefits Consulting
T. Rowe Price
TIAA-CREF
VALIC
Washington Mutual
Willett Consulting