Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard is applying behavioral finance theory to fintech with a new online portal for defined contribution plan participants.
Vanguard’s new portal, unveiled on Wednesday, is designed to offer participants a holistic view of their retirement preparedness. After logging into a new home page, investors are immediately able to check their account balances and a retirement readiness indicator.
Vanguard’s Retirement Readiness Tool uses analytics to measure progress towards retirement goals, like an estimate of future monthly income that may be generated from an account. Data aggregated by the tool include current savings, Social Security and outside assets, and assumptions regarding future contributions and market performance to project how savings will grow.
The portal also provides participants with suggestions, called “nudges,” for steps to improve their retirement readiness based on the retirement readiness indicator’s analytics.
Using Vanguard’s retirement readiness offerings, participants can refine their savings and investing plan by manipulating different variables and running “what-if” scenarios on the tool, the company says.
The portal integrates with Vanguard’s Personalized Participant Journeys outreach and communication platform, designed to deliver timely messages to plan participants rooted in behavioral finance and recommending best actions, the company says.