| The question your Baby Boomer employees are likely asking after this year of uncertainty: Will I still be able to retire when I planned to? And your Generation X employees maybe aren’t asking themselves yet but should be: Will they be prepared for retirement in 20 years? If your employees aren’t ready for retirement, it can have a negative affect on your organization. Not only will you continue to pay a high salary percentage toward their company-match retirement accounts, you’ll continue to pay expensive healthcare costs for aging employees. What does the cost look like for your organization if your employees delay retirement for five years? To help them prepare for retirement, almost 40 percent of people turn to their coworkers, family, and friends for trusted financial guidance, and nearly 25 percent of us don’t have anyone to turn to, according to the National Financial Educators Council. As an employer, you have major influence to help guide your employees to reach retirement fully ready for it. A great way to do that is to slant your communications about retirement benefits specifically to each generation. You can tailor your information to address specific needs of each generation, as follows: Gen Z: Highly skilled in technology, unsure how to start (or maybe even how important) saving for retirement, student loan debt Millennials: Live in on-demand world, unsure of best practices to save for retirement, student loan debt, credit card debt, young families. Gen X: Caring for young families, caring for aging parents, retirement only 20 years away. Boomers: Rapidly reaching retirement, envisioning what next stage of life will look like, may not be aware of how much funds will be needed for a life that may last well into their 90's. You can develop your benefits information sessions to have segments focused on each generation, to make that information intensely valuable for those specific attendees, and then make sure your workforce knows which part of the sessions will be geared toward them. For example, for your oldest generation, you can review budgeting in retirement, allocations and risk levels at their stage of life, how they can use catch-up provisions, and how to discover how much social security benefits they will receive. For a Gen X audience, you can discuss how to maximize savings as time is of the essence, and discuss saving for children’s education. For younger generations, discussing if social security will still be available, and best understanding of compounding interest. Approaching retirement benefits presentations in this way is likely to increase participation, increase retirement readiness for your employees, and help to decrease costs in the long-term as your employees are ready for retirement when the time comes! Get in touch with Domani Wealth for more ideas and guidance on how to improve your retirement benefits for employees! | 