Employee Education

SMITH HAYES believes education is perhaps the most important aspect of your retirement plan. We go well beyond what is required by ERISA standards to make certain each individual employee understands the basics of investing and each of the investment options available through their retirement plan. It is extremely important that employees be provided sufficient education and assistance in order to make well-informed decisions regarding their investments. With this in mind, we can provide your retirement plan participants with the following:

• Enrollment Seminars are conducted for all plan participants. Participants are provided with educational materials including an overview of investing, complete descriptions of their investment alternatives, summary plan descriptions, and more.
  
  
• Participant Notebooks, customized with your organization's logo, are furnished to all participants. These three-ring notebooks contain all the educational materials and are useful for storing plan information, quarterly reports, and personal financial documents.
  
  
• Review Seminars are conducted quarterly or at the request of our clients. These meetings are designed to better inform participants about plan investments and provisions of the plan, and are ideal for answering individual questions.
  
  
• On-Call Availability is provided by each of the SMITH HAYES professionals on your account. We can be contacted during business hours at our toll-free office number. During non-business hours (evenings, weekends, etc.), we can be reached at our homes. Each professional's home number, as well as our office and toll-free number is provided in the participant notebooks. Participants are instructed to call collect.
  
  
• Informational Videos are customized for your plan and made available to participants. The video typically covers your plan's provisions, the importance of saving, the basics of investing, and a thorough description of the investment alternatives available to your plan participants.
  
  
• Internet Capabilities offer SMITH HAYES' clients across the nation the capability to interact with us online. "E"-enrollments, review seminars, and plan updates can all be conducted electronically with this medium in place. The educational material furnished on the videos is also available on the internet.
  
  
• Hypothetical Savings Projections help paint a retirement picture by estimating tomorrow's savings based on today's investments. Not only does this tool aid participants in planning for retirement, but it also encourages saving a little extra each month.
  
  
• Personal Financial Statements can be generated for any participant who is interested. This is an excellent way to take a personal inventory of assets and liabilities along the way to determining net worth. All items remain confidential and SMITH HAYES promises management, as well as the participants, not to solicit business based on this personal information.