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Our digital investment advisory program is designed to make retirement planning approachable and simple for your 401(k) participants. Watch our video to learn more.
Helping employees take charge of their financial future is central to who we are as an organization. And, through Personal Retirement Strategy we can help connect employees to powerful retirement income planning resources that provide advice and guidance, including suggested 401(k) withdrawal rate projected (but not guaranteed) to last for the duration of choosing.
Designed to help participants get closer to their retirement income goal, Personalized Suggestions offers recommendations - such as starting to contribute, adjusting their annual contribution or increasing the contribution rate to maximize the employer match. It can also suggest savings outside the plan. The considerations of Personalized Suggestions can be viewed with a "try it now" feature, enabling participants to preview the impact of making a change.
To support participants, as an alternative to participants managing their account on their own, Merrill Managed is a discretionary managed-account service that can choose investments for participants and professionally manage and customize their account on an ongoing basis based on individual goals. While enrolled in Merrill Managed, we provide investment management of the participant’s Plan assets by reviewing their investments approximately every 90 days based on the participant’s date of birth. We will review the participant’s asset allocation and investments, additional or modified information the Plan Sponsor or participant have provided and any other changes the participant may have made that impact their Goal Funding Status, and we will reallocate the participant’s Plan assets and rebalance their account as appropriate to help meet their annual retirement income goal. Merrill Managed is available while participants are actively contributing when in terminated status with a balance, and in retired status. Merrill Managed is a fee based service and can be paid by either the plan sponsor or participant.
When nearing retirement, 401k Pay can help guide participants’ decumulation or withdrawal decisions and turn their 401(k) balance into a recurring 'paycheck' in retirement. 401k Pay automatically suggests a projected withdrawal amount and how long a participant's 401(k) account balance could fund withdrawals into the future. It also has a modeling option for participants to choose their own withdrawal amount and an easy way to deposit the 401(k) withdrawals into an account of their choice through recurring direct deposits from their 401(k) account.
Personal Retirement Strategy can help all your participants with retirement planning - whether they want to do it themselves and see if they are ‘on track’ or prefer the professional help of Merrill Managed to provide the advice and guidance they need.
1 The fiduciary standards we follow are established under the Advisers Act and ERISA. In Personal Retirement Strategy, Merrill acknowledges and agrees to be an ERISA Fiduciary, to the extent that it renders investment advice within the meaning of section 3(21)(A)(ii) of ERISA. When providing discretionary services in this Program through Merrill Managed, Merrill acknowledges that it is acting as an investment manager within the meaning of Section 3(38) of ERISA. In 401k Pay, Merrill acts as a fiduciary investment adviser under the Advisers Act.
Personal Retirement Strategy is an online investment advisory program sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. (“MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) that uses a probabilistic approach to determine the likelihood that participants in the program will accumulate sufficient total assets to achieve their annual retirement income goal. Additionally, the recommendations provided by Personal Retirement Strategy may include a higher level of investment risk than a participant may be personally comfortable with. Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select. Participants are strongly advised to consider their personal goals, overall risk tolerance, and retirement horizon before accepting any recommendations made by Personal Retirement Strategy. Participants should carefully review the explanation of the methodology used, including key assumptions and limitations, which is provided in the Personal Retirement Strategy disclosure document (ADV Part 2A). It can be obtained through Benefits OnLine® or through the Retirement Benefits Contact Center.
IMPORTANT: The projections or other information shown in the Personal Retirement Strategy program regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
401k Pay is a feature of PRS that uses a probabilistic approach to determine the likelihood participants can achieve a retirement income amount.
The withdrawal amount suggested by 401k Pay is only for your 401(k) account balance. It does not include any outside assets a participant may have added to Retirement Settings.
The Chief Investment Office (CIO) provides thought leadership on wealth management, investment strategy and global markets; portfolio management solutions; due diligence; and solutions oversight and data analytics. CIO viewpoints are developed for Bank of America Private Bank, a division of Bank of America, N.A., (“Bank of America”) and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (“MLPF&S” or “Merrill”), a registered broker‐dealer, registered investment adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”).
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