Principal Encourages Retirement Savers to ‘Move to the Green’

To help people make progress today toward having enough retirement savings for tomorrow, Principal Financial Group® has launched the Move to the Green Challenge.

As part of the challenge, individuals can walk through a Retirement Wellness Planner. It uses interactive sliders, intuitive prompts and a real-time savings graph to show how making simple changes now may help financial security at retirement.

The planner gives users a personalized score – within a range of green, yellow or red – to let them know if they’re on track. Green means a saver is set to replace the recommended 70%-85% of their income in retirement.

“By showing a color—a simple representation of income available in retirement—you can quickly see how you’re doing,” said Jerry Patterson, senior vice president of retirement and income solutions at Principal®. “And even more importantly, you can easily make small adjustments to your savings strategy to get yourself to green.”

A similar initiative last year brought positive results. Of those who participated, nearly one-third raised their deferral amount to 10% of pay, an increase of 3.75 percentage points.

In addition, there’s been a 30% increase in the number of participants upping their deferrals since the launch of the Retirement Wellness Planner. And three times more participants have used the new planner compared to our previous retirement planning tool.

“It’s clear that a more personalized, interactive online experience helps savers see where they can make better choices and they’re following through,” Patterson said. “We know that saving more and saving earlier is the best thing you can do to prepare for retirement.”

Need another reason?
Those who take part in the Move to the Green Challenge are eligible to win a pair of Plantronics® BackBeat FIT wireless stereo headphones. They do not have to have a retirement account with Principal in order to participate.

Good choices on the go
Principal continues to make it easier to save for retirement on mobile devices with updates to our app. Participants can now get to the Retirement Wellness Planner and make changes to their savings strategy. And those who are in retirement plans that offer Principal Pension BuilderSM can see how the in-plan guaranteed income option fits into their overall savings plan.

For more research, analysis and insights from Principal, visit the Principal Knowledge Center and connect with us on Twitter.

About Principal®
Principal helps people and companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals – offering innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us at principal.com.

Principal, Principal and symbol design and Principal Financial Group are trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

The Retirement Wellness Planner information and Retirement Wellness Score are limited only to the inputs and other financial assumptions and is not intended to be a financial plan or investment advice from any company of the Principal Financial Group® (Principal®). They only provide general guidelines that may be helpful in making personal financial decisions. Responsibility for those decisions is assumed by the participant, not Principal. Individual results will vary. Participants should regularly review their savings progress and post-retirement needs.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160516006099/en/