In This Issue:
The number of people aged 65 and older relative
to the number aged between 20 and 64 years is
expected to double to almost 50% in the next five
decades
According to the U.S.
Bureau of Statistics, more than 25% of the working population will reach
retirement age by 2010, resulting in a potential worker shortage of
nearly 10 million.
There are now more people over 90 or 100 than in all of American history put together.
Employer funded retirement plans and the Social Security fund are two peas in the same pod. Both are in danger of not being able to keep the promise made over three generations ago - ensuring continuing income after leaving the work force. Principally because of volatile equity markets, most large employers are struggling to meet funding requirements for their defined benefit pension plans. The government reports that over 1,100 under-funded, single-employer plans had a $353.7 billion collective shortfall as of April 15. Worse, The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC), the government’s safety net that ensures workers’ pensions, is reporting a $23.3 billion shortfall. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office recently reported that the deficit could grow to $71 billion by 2015.
National opinion polls show that none of the proposed solutions proffered by the Administration or the Congress have attracted broad based support. So we thought we would poll our own group of experts, our clients and friends of the firm who have a special interest in the financial stability of the US retirement system. It will take just a minute to complete our brief survey. We will publish the results in the next BenXL Digest.
Requests we receive for proposals seem to be getting longer and more complex. One of the most interesting, recurring questions concerns our plans for future growth and the importance of innovation in the way we manage our business. At one time, because BenXL is a privately held company, we might have been hesitant to share our growth plans. Not today. In fact, even if the question isn’t asked, we routinely include our growth strategy as part of our response. We want our clients and others interested in partnering with us to have confidence in our ability to keep pace with the industry and with our clients’ business strategies, and to excel in providing pension administration solutions. We believe our clients are best served if we:
o Focus on organic growth in our area of expertise, defined benefit pension plan administration.
o Increase our capacity to provide support services through selective recruiting and continuous competency development of our staff.
o Expand our products and services in direct response to clients’ needs.
Examples:
- We have a major reengineering effort underway to convert the existing web user interface to a .Net platform because that is what our clients want.
- Our Call Center module has been enhanced and other participant services, such as retirement education and training tools, are now available because the need for information and education has outgrown traditional solutions.
- Our consulting services for TPAs and plan sponsors have been expanded to include a detailed analysis of administration processes as well as the systems architecture. Our clients are asking us to “look under the hood” to help manage costs, improve productive and customer satisfaction.
- We are allocating more of our resources to scaling our software solutions for the broader TPA market.
You can help us keep pace and get ahead by giving us the benefit of your feedback on every aspect of our contact with you, from the moment we say, “Good day, BenXL Technologies, how may I help you please?”
410 Feheley Drive 610-313-2300 610278-8008 digest@benxl.com http://www.BenXL.com
King of Prussia, PA 19406