BMO Retirement Services' New Retirement Income Calculator Seeks to Assist Plan Participants to Reach Their Retirement Goals

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BMO Retirement Services has introduced a personalized retirement income calculator that provides information to regularly reassure plan participants that their retirement income goals are on track.

"The new, fully-automated BMO calculator is designed for all participants, but we especially want to target those who are at risk of giving up because they are daunted by the size of their goal," said Todd Perala, Director of Relationship Management. The calculator can be accessed by plan participants at mybmoretirement.com.

Rather than present a total retirement dollar figure, which can dishearten participants, the BMO calculator enables employees to review their estimated savings in terms of monthly retirement income.  "Plan sponsors have indicated to us that a monthly income perspective, instead of a total sum perspective, can be a critical distinction as to how plan participants perceive their goal," Perala observed.

BMO's calculator is designed to pop up when a participant logs onto an account, and is reset to reappear once every 30 days.  According to Perala, this may be especially helpful to the more than the estimated 60 percent of US workers who have never calculated how much they need to save. 

The calculator is fully personalized for each participant, incorporating that individual's current balance, prospective retirement age, estimated length of retirement, current pre-tax income and three other key measures. Auto step-up features, the availability of catch-up contributions, and any company contributions can be built into the BMO calculator based on plan design. This information enables participants to access a monthly income projection at retirement based on current savings in the plan, paired with monthly income the participant is expected to need at retirement.

The calculator also gives employees the ability to adjust the calculation to include other assets or review different savings scenarios.  "Participants are prone to stop saving when they are overwhelmed by the magnitude of their savings goal," said Perala. "Among the numerous calculators available to plan sponsors and participants, BMO's newest entry directly addresses this widespread challenge."  

About BMO Retirement Services
BMO Global Asset Management is a global, award-winning provider of retirement, trust and custody services. 

BMO Global Asset Management provides holistic, solution-driven services to our institutional and high-net-worth clients and the BMO family of mutual funds.  With a nearly 40-year legacy of fiduciary service – and goal of promoting retirement readiness to our more than 500,000 participants in over 1,500 retirement plans – our clients include retirement plans, Taft-Hartley funds, government and public funds, not-for-profit organizations and family offices. BMO Global Asset Management's commitment to service excellence has led us to be recognized by Pension & Investments as one of the Top 100 largest asset managers.

We are a part of BMO Financial Group (NYSE: BMO), a fully diversified financial services firm with $542 billion total assets and more than 46,000 employees as of July 31, 2012.

BMO Retirement Services is a part of BMO Global Asset Management and a division of the BMO Harris Bank N.A., offering products and services through various affiliates of BMO Financial Group.

BMO Global Asset Management is the brand name for various affiliated entities of BMO Financial Group, that provide trust, custody, securities lending, investment management, and retirement plan services. Certain of the products and services offered under the brand name BMO Global Asset Management are designed specifically for various categories of investors in a number of different countries and regions. Those products and services are only offered to such investors in those countries and regions in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. BMO Financial Group is a service mark of Bank of Montreal (BMO). Investment products are: NOT FDIC INSURED – NO BANK GUARANTEE – MAY LOSE VALUE

SOURCE BMO Global Asset Management