Recently, I had a pharmacy owner ask me what he could do to improve the specific financial/retirement outcomes for the employees in his company sponsored retirement plan. He asked because he really cares about his employees being successful and he wants to offer them a benefit he feels they will not be able to get somewhere else.

This led to a discussion amongst our team members about the services we provide and a personal journey to determine what retirement plan participants want for service and advice. The following are things that we decided pharmacy 401k plan participants (or retirement plan participants if you don't have a 401k) want in the service and solutions provided in a retirement program. We have decided recently that we are going to start offering all these services to all Waypoint 401k and Pharmacy 401k plans.

1. Basic Understanding of Financial Markets: pharmacy 401k and other retirement plan participants often tell us they don't understand how financial markets work. This can be a simple addition to an education/service plan for your participants. We offer this to our plan participants through a regular newsletter.
2. Health Care Planning - health care/health insurance and medicare planning are complex for participants who are trying to make the best decision for them and their family. We now have a separate company Waypoint Health dedicated to helping participants with these important decisions. We even offer health coaching to improve the overall physical health of retirement plan participants.
3. Financial Planning - basic financial planning is the most requested benefit of any employee in our nation. Most employees would never have access to a financial planner so offering this through the 401k plan can be a great benefit. We dedicate one meeting per year to do basic financial planning with 401k participants individually.
4. Debt Management - we like to say at Waypoint that we don't have an income problem in America, we have a payment problem. Helping your employees get out of debt can lead to better work environments and happier employees. This is a new service that we will be offering.
5. Budgeting - this has almost become one of those bad four letter words in America. However, it has been proven that people who live on a budget end up with more money for retirement than those who do not. This is a new service we will be offering.
6. Life Stage Planning - adding lifecycle funds to your portfolio can help someone choose the best investment portfolio by simple selecting his or her desired date for retirement. These are already offered in our plans.

These (or any combination) of these things can really improve the level of service and the specific financial outcomes for your employees. Please do not take the responsibility of thinking through your benefit offerings lightly. Many studies show that employees value benefits as much as, or even more than, their actual compensation. With that being said, if you want to discuss any of these ideas or learn how Waypoint ensures our plan participants have access to these services and solutions, please contact us 843-873-4420 or email tyler@waypointus.com.