Clients, Financial Professionals Praise MassMutual for "Best Practices" Around Fee Disclosure

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MassMutual Retirement Services Division

Jul 25, 2012, 02:01 ET

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., July 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of its comprehensive, proactive fee disclosure education campaign, MassMutual's Retirement Services Division is receiving glowing feedback and notes of appreciation from financial advisors, third-party administrators (TPAs) and plan sponsors alike.

"I just want to commend MassMutual on your fee disclosure process! As you know, most TPAs work with many different retirement plan recordkeepers. Now that we have our arms around what all the vendors are doing (or more often, not doing), it is clear that MassMutual stands way ahead of the others in your communication to plans sponsors and participants," says Sabrina L. Holme, CPA, senior vice president, KSPH Employee Benefits Management (a Marsh & McLennan Agency).

"MassMutual is the ONLY vendor (that we work with) that has incorporated our TPA fees into the disclosure and the ONLY vendor that has also incorporated this customized fee disclosure report on each sponsor's website. The other vendors are requiring that the plan sponsor customize their own disclosure notice, and requiring the sponsor to also incorporate our TPA fees, if applicable. The time and effort that MassMutual has put into this project has so much value to TPAs and the financial advisors with whom we work, and this has helped make the sponsor's job so easy," adds Holme.

According to MassMutual, in addition to print and online materials and a series of focused WebEx sessions for advisors and third-party administrators (TPAs), this division-wide, tiered training program for client-facing associates has prepared them to assist and educate sponsors, advisors, TPAs, and participants about changes in fee disclosure and what it means to them. "Training of client-facing associates was calibrated to match each audience based on expected client interaction. For example, relationship managers completed two to three days of classroom training and role playing, and call center associates completed both web-based and scenario-based classroom training to ensure they could be as helpful as possible. In addition to standard classroom and web training, MassMutual provided associates with an array of support tools to help them illustrate MassMutual's offering relative to fees," says Dennis Miles, vice president of sales engineering, MassMutual Retirement Services.

MassMutual was invited to participate in the Retirement Services Roundtable® Senior Executive Forum, hosted by The Corporate Executive Board Company late in 2011, to present its industry-leading fee disclosure strategy framework as part of the event's best practices case study related to the explicit pricing transparency mandated by Section 408(b)(2) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the regulations issued thereunder.

"We are consistently hearing similar positive feedback from advisors, TPAs, and plan sponsors," adds Miles. "MassMutual's entire organization has worked diligently to ensure that all of our clients have a full understanding of the impacts of fee disclosure. Every client-facing associate in our organization has been trained on the subject. MassMutual has been an advocate of transparency for many years and we are well-positioned to demonstrate why MassMutual has earned a reputation as a world-class retirement services provider. We're delighted that our distribution partners and clients feel so confident about the process."

For more information about MassMutual's retirement services, please call your retirement plan advisor or contact MassMutual at (888) 626-4911, www.massmutual.com/retire.

MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) [of which Retirement Services is a division] and its affiliated companies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and its major affiliates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Investors Services, LLC, Member FINRA and SIPC; OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.

Founded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyholders. The company has a long history of financial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyholders every year since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company's strong and growing network of financial professionals helps clients make good financial decisions for the long-term.

MassMutual's Retirement Services Division has been serving retirement plans for more than 65 years. It offers a full range of products and services for corporate, union, nonprofit and governmental employers' defined benefit, defined contribution and nonqualified deferred compensation plans. It serves approximately 1.6 million participants.

For more information, visit www.massmutual.com or find MassMutual on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. For information regarding MassMutual's Retirement Services Division, you may also visit massmutual.com/retire or find us on Facebook.com/retiresmart and YouTube.com/retiresmart.

Contact: Lisa Reilly
413-744-0589
[email protected]

SOURCE MassMutual Retirement Services Division