Voya Financial says it wants retirement plan participants to think of their retirement savings in a different way and it has created a tool to help them do that.
Instead of looking at it as how much has been saved, participants should think of it as how much income can be generated in retirement, says Charlie Nelson, CEO of retirement at Voya Financial.
To help do this, Voya has created the myOrangeMoney digital platform to help retirement plan participants visualize how the decisions made now will translate into income later, Voya announced Tuesday. The platform will be rolled out Aug. 31.
The platform also is designed to help advisors initiate the conversation about retirement income, Nelson says.
According to the Voya Retire Ready Index, one-third of the participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans contribute only up to the employers’ match. Twenty-percent have determined their contribution amount based on their employers recommendation.
At the same time, 61 percent are afraid they will not be able to pay for health care and two-thirds plan to take Social Security at age 66 or younger, even though the benefit amount continues to grow until age 70.
The Voya retirement planning platform will enable participants to see--in a graphic using a dollar bill that changes colors--how each decision they make will affect their retirement income, even if they are just starting to save.
It also shows how health-care costs will impact income and how Social Security fits into the picture.
Participants also can compare themselves to their peers to determine how they rank for their potential retirement income.
“If participants start to think in terms of generating income instead of how much they are saving, it is a shift in their mindset,” says Christine Lange, head of Voya digital strategy for retirement. “Then we want to change that conversation about the new mindset into action.”