LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Transamerica Retirement Services today announced the findings of the 2012 Gregory Group Plan Sponsor Survey, an annual study of retirement plan sponsors that identifies performance improvement opportunities for third party administrators (TPAs) of 401(k) plans. In a report published by Transamerica entitled Increasing Client Satisfaction in a Low-Margin World, the survey finds communication to be a leading driver of satisfaction for plan sponsors.

Among all factors influencing survey respondents perceptions of value delivered by their TPA, frequency of communication proved to be one of the most important. In general, plan sponsors who indicated they received more regular contact from their TPA rated the quality of service from their TPA higher. Additionally, the survey finds that frequency of communication can impact satisfaction with a TPA both positively and negatively. Plan sponsors who indicated they are contacted quarterly by their TPA were most satisfied.

This years study focuses on drivers of client satisfaction, and shines a light on the important role of communications in regard to plan sponsor satisfaction of TPAs, said Deb Rubin, vice president and national director of TPA Services for Transamerica Retirement Services. The survey shows that plan sponsors want face-to-face interaction for both an annual visit and during problem resolutions. This face-to-face communication is a significant benefit for plan sponsors who utilize the services of a local TPA. The TPA, in turn, has a dynamic opportunity to be aware of the clients business situation and to proactively help the client, resulting in higher satisfaction among plan sponsors.

The Gregory Group survey was commissioned by Transamerica and was developed to help TPAs understand what keeps clients satisfied. The report also offered action items and best practices to help enhance TPAs business.

TPAs provide unique value in todays competitive environment and Transamerica listens closely to what they say they need to be successful, said Rubin. Transamerica is dedicated to the success of our TPA partners, and this survey is just one of many services we provide to help TPAs achieve their business goals.

More information on the survey is available to third party administrators by calling Transamerica at (877) 398-7526 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

About Transamerica Retirement Services Corporation

Transamerica Retirement Services Corporation (Transamerica or Transamerica Retirement Services), which is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, designs customized retirement plan solutions to meet the unique needs of small- to mid-sized businesses. Transamerica and its affiliates have more than 17,0001 retirement plans totaling more than $20 billion1 in assets. For more information about Transamerica, please refer to http://www.TA-Retirement.com.

About the 2012 Gregory Group Plan Sponsor Survey

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Transamerica Retirement Services Reveals Findings of 2012 Client Satisfaction Survey of TPAs

Americans have made some headway with their retirement savings after the last few disastrous years. Nearly one-fifth of Americans (18%) are saving more for retirement this year than last year, according to Bankrate's August Financial Security Index. When we asked this same question in 2011, 15% said they were saving more than the previous year -- not a significant difference.

But the same proportion of people, 18%, say they are saving less than they did last year. That's actually much better than last year, when 29% of Americans said they were contributing a smaller amount to retirement savings than the previous year.

"The fact that people have stopped saving less is good -- but are they saving enough? The data (are) showing, in aggregate, no," says Certified Financial Planner David Littell, co-director of the New York Life Center of Retirement Income and professor of taxation at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

The combined retirement income deficit for baby boomers and Generation Xers is estimated to be $4.3 trillion, according to a May 2012 report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI.

Ideally, people would increase retirement contributions every year, but they don't because it's very likely that most people have no idea how expensive 30 years of retirement will be.

According to a March 2012 report from EBRI, 56% of workers say they haven't calculated how much they need to save for retirement.

Calculating retirement income needs is the first step to establishing an effective retirement savings rate. It may be higher than you think, particularly if you're older than 30.

For instance, with 30 years to save for a 30-year retirement, someone with an investment portfolio split between 60% stocks and 40% bonds would need to save 16.62% of her income per year in order to replace 50% of her income in retirement. Those numbers are from the work of Wade D. Pfau, an associate professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

His findings were published in an article titled "Safe savings rates: A new approach to retirement planning over the life cycle," which appeared in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning.

Under the same circumstances, someone with 40 years to save would only need to put away 8.77% of his yearly income, according to the study.

See the article here:
Retirement Savings Poll: Don't Call it a Comeback

Here is something a lot of people struggle with: given a vague idea or project, how do you move towards shaping something concrete out of it? For Vivek Haldar, a software developer at Google, the solution comes in four parts.

All projects start with a big blob of vagueness. Folks who create the most concreteness out of that are the ones who have the biggest impact. I'm learning how to approach this, but I still feel like a non-swimmer in the shallow end with lifesavers. I've learned a little, by personal experience, and by observation.

This is not design yet. These are high-level ideas that put constraints on the design space. For example, GMail chose the principle that search should be the primary email navigation mechanism. Think long and hard about these, because these principles will be baked into your code and your system in a way that can't be "refactored" away later. This is where wizards (i.e. very senior battle-hardened engineers) can help. Often, choosing these is a matter of taste and design and conceptual integrity. It might sound wishy-washy but it's hard. Document these well. This is your manifesto.

Once you've got a spine, you've got to add a few more bones.

This usually takes the form of a prototype, or a walking skeleton. It might have huge swaths of functionality missing. It might have serious shortcomings. It might be ugly. It might be slow. But that's OK. Think of this as the spec of sand around which a pearl is formed. What is important is that it be concrete, and growable.

It needs to be concrete and tangible. Something you can show and demo and people can play with and talk about and criticize get excited about. People rarely get excited about design documents. They frequently get excited about working prototypes, even when they come with massive this-will-break-on-you disclaimers.

Your prototype should not be a dead end. You should be able to put work into it and make it incrementally better. Adding something new or changing it should not require you to build a new one from scratch. In other words, it should support iteration. There may come a point when you have to throw one (or more away), but ideally that happens only when the prototype has brought you to a major insight that invalidates some of your basic assumptions. Even then, it would have served its purpose. And even then, you need something that will get you to that point quickly.

In other words, focus on learning and fixing, continuously and quickly. Don't sweat too much about getting it right. Chances are, your idea of right won't be the right one. Chances are that most other peoples' idea of right won't be either. Only by having something real to criticize and learn from will everyone figure out what right is.

Build, fail, fixand repeat.

On Vagueness | Vivek Haldar

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How I Turn Vague Ideas Into Tangible Goals [Success]

A SUNBURY boy is now able to learn just like his classmates at Killara Primary School - and it's all thanks to modern technology.

Last year Ben Clewer, 7, was the first child in Australia to receive a cochlear implant with the new CI422 electrode.

His parents, Lyall and Susan, admit they were nervous about Ben being a medical trailblazer. But their fears were unfounded as the cochlear implant has been a great success.

Ben's parents first realised there was a problem when he did not start putting more than two words together at the age of two.

They had him tested and found out that Ben had significant hearing loss.

After being fitted with hearing aids for four years, they were referred to the Eye and Ear Hospital's Cochlear Implant Clinic, who told them about cochlear implants.

As Ben still has some residual hearing, the CI422 electrode was recommended.

Ben attended a mainstream kindergarten in Sunbury with the assistance of Taralye, an oral language centre for deaf children in Victoria.

His parents also wanted him to attend a mainstream primary school, but finding the right school close to home was difficult.

Ben's father, Lyall, successfully applied for $10,000 funding from the Sidney Myer Foundation for two "sound-fields" in the classrooms at Killara Primary School. This included the installation of speakers which transmit into Ben's personal FM system.

Continued here:
Implant a huge success for Sunbury boy

Hanks High School graduate Vanessa Thomas helped NMSU's inaugural women's soccer team to a surprising 9-9-1 finish. (Courtesy photo)

Vanessa Thomas' first season at New Mexico State was full of surprises.

The former Hanks High School standout was one of the first players to commit to the Aggies' first-year soccer program in 2009. Thomas, who was one of El Paso's top strikers during her four years with the Knights, expected to be attacking on the front row at NMSU.

"I was recruited as a forward, but I was put in on defense my first game and I've been there ever since and I love it," Thomas said. "It was a shock. I was a little kid freshman and I didn't know what to expect. I'm glad it played out the way it did."

Heading into her senior season, Thomas has played in 55 matches and started in all but eight. She has served as one of the cornerstones of the NMSU program.

"Vanessa is part of what we call our foundation class," Aggies head coach Blair Quinn said. "I think any senior class would be motivated, but I think what is special about them is that very few classes get a chance to start a program and see it through during their four years."

The Aggies compiled a surprising 9-9-1 record in their inaugural season as Thomas saw action in each match and started in 14. NMSU reached the WAC tournament and lost 1-0 in the first round to fourth-seeded Nevada.

"It was a little surprising since we were in our first year," Thomas said. "But we had good players."

With Thomas a fixture in the back row, New Mexico State went 7-8-3 in 2010 and failed to make the WAC tournament.

"I can always do better and that's what this year is for," Thomas said. "I can't wait to make this year better than last year."

Go here to read the rest:
Hanks High School grad finds success in new position at NMSU

COLUMBIA, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Employers counting on wellness programs to bend the benefits cost curve must include strong communication plans in their strategy if they hope to achieve their goals. Those who shortchange this crucial step risk wasting their investment of precious resources in a tight economy.

Thats one of the key findings in a new white paper released today by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. Well on the Way: Engaging Employees in Workplace Wellness uses proprietary and industry research and case studies to show how wellness initiatives can help employers control ever-higher health care and benefits costs, and the vital role of benefits communication in driving the effectiveness of these programs.

A growing number of employers are implementing programs that successfully reduce employee health risk factors and better manage chronic illness the primary drivers of health care costs. And employees value these programs: Nearly 90 percent of employees say the range of a companys health and wellness benefits is either very important or somewhat important in their choice of an employer.1 Yet these employees still might not participate in wellness programs because of lack of information.

You can build it but they may not come

Most employers cite weak employee engagement as the biggest obstacle to changing their employees health risk behavior, the white paper reports.2 But more than half of workers say they dont know enough about their companys wellness programs to participate in them. A new Colonial Life survey found 52 percent of workers whose employers offer wellness programs say theyre only somewhat or not at all knowledgeable about them.3 Lack of knowledge is higher among younger workers, less educated workers and lower-paid workers.

Just offering a wellness program and expecting a majority of employees to participate the if you build it, they will come scenario is prone to failure, said Steve Bygott, assistant vice president of marketing analysis and programs at Colonial Life. Communication that clearly delineates the benefits of participation to employees is the first step to long-term engagement in wellness programs.

Recent research shows wellness programs are often poorly understood and theres a surprising gap between what employers and employees think: 57 percent of employers believe their employees have a good understanding of the health and wellness programs offered and how to participate, but only 41 percent of employees agree they have a strong grasp of the programs offered.1

Personalized communication is effective

One-to-one employee communication, delivered in partnership with a benefits provider, offers a cost-effective means to build understanding and enhance engagement in these programs. Surveys with more than 20,000 employees who met individually with a benefits communication counselor show nearly all (96 percent) say it improved their understanding of benefits, and 98 percent say the interaction was important.4

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Colonial Life white paper shows communication is key to wellness program success

From the Archive: As Republicans and the Tea Party seek todismantle the New Deals social contract, one of their heroes, Dick Cheney, concedes that his personal success traces back to the federal governments intervention against the depredations inflicted on Americans by free-market capitalism, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry (Originally publishedSept. 16, 2011)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney would agree that he is about as right-wing as an American politician can be, openly hostile to the federal governments intervention in society. But one surprise from his memoir, In My Time, is that Cheney recognizes that his personal success was made possible by FranklinRoosevelts New Deal and the fact that Cheneys father managed to landa steady job with the federal government.

Ive often reflected on how different was the utterly stable environment he provided for his family and wondered if because of that I have been able to take risks, to change directions, and to leave one career path for another with hardly a second thought, Cheney writes.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

In that sense, Cheneys self-assuredness may be as much a product of the New Deal as the many bridges, dams and other public works that Roosevelt commissioned in the 1930s to get Americans back to work. By contrast, the insecurity that afflicted Cheneys father was a byproduct of the vicissitudes from laissez-faire capitalism.

So, it is ironic that as an adult, Cheney has contributed as much as almost anyone todismantlingthe New Deal, the social compact that pulled his family into the American middle class and opened extraordinary opportunities for him.

In sketching his familys history, Cheney depicts the hard-scrabble life of farmers and small businessmen scratching out a living in the American Midwest and suffering financial reversals whenever the titans of Wall Street stumbled into a financial crisis and the bankers cut off credit.

After his ancestors would make some modest headway from their hard work, they would find themselves back at square one, again and again, because of some market crisis or a negative weather pattern. Whenever there was a financial panic or a drought, everything was lost.

In 1883, as the country struggled through a long economic depression, the sash and door factory that [Civil War veteran Samuel Fletcher Cheney] co-owned [in Defiance, Ohio] had to be sold to pay its debts, Cheney writes. At the age of fifty-four, Samuel Cheney had to start over, moving to Nebraska.

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Dick Cheney: Son of the New Deal

Published 20 Aug 2012 09:45

TWELVE talented young people were told 'you're hired' as the award winning-personal development programme The Recruit ended for 2012.

At a glittering awards ceremony held at Greenock Town Hall on Friday night, Megan Duffy from Gourock was announced as the overall winner of the enterprise competition.

Megan receives a position paying 14,000 with T-Mobile, plus a course of driving lessons.

A further 11 recruits also secured jobs with a number of local organisations and businesses, including five more roles at T-Mobile, as well as jobs at Inverclyde Council, HP, ISS and three at the RBS Mortgage Centre.

This was a great surprise to The Recruits who expected seven jobs in total.

The successful candidates were selected based on their performance, attitude, potential, personal drive, determination and employability skills throughout the programme of Recruit activities, which saw 35 fifth and sixth year pupils from across Inverclyde devote up to 500 hours of their time to take part in a number of Apprentice-style challenges.

They also recruits received talks, tasks and lessons from a range of businesses based in the area, including T-Mobile, RBS, Kip Marina, Stepwell (Cookschool & Fresh), Texas Instruments, Dominos Pizza and IBM.

Councillor Terry Loughran, convener of education for Inverclyde Council, said: "Friday night was the culmination of five months of hard work, commitment and sheer determination, which has been demonstrated by all of the recruits who have taken part.

"The process has seen the candidates develop both personally and professionally, standing them in good stead for their future, as they take away valuable life and business skills, increasingly important in the current, competitive job market.

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Youngsters become new recruits

TCS Communications workers prepare a conduit for connection on West 20th Avenue in Lakewood last week. In many far-flung and urban districts, the digital divide centers on sufficient data-streaming capacity to allow students to take the kinds of classes that many small schools can't offer in a bricks-and-mortar classroom. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

On Colorado's education landscape, the "digital divide" looks something like this: While one classroom streams online coursework to students, others log off the Internet so a school's meager bandwidth can handle the load.

The gap between the technological haves and have-nots, once defined by access to the computer hardware that drives high-tech learning, now centers on an information superhighway that too often recedes to the digital equivalent of rutted rural back roads.

As a result, classes ranging from Advanced Placement to world languages to credit-recovery courses may not be available in areas with lagging local Internet connections denying many students the same instructional options as their better-connected counterparts.

"If a kid on the plains has good broadband access, he can mitigate those differences with online courses," said John Watson, founder of the Durango-based Evergreen Education Group and co-author of a study for the Colorado Department of Education. "When you don't, it's difficult or impossible."

And as the state moves toward online assessment, such as some high-stakes testing slated for 2014, questions remain about whether the technological infrastructure will be able to handle it.

"Without an adequate pipeline, information may not reach teachers or students in a timely manner," said Dan Domagala, chief information officer for the Colorado Department of Education. "I think access is no longer the issue. It has shifted toward speed and bandwidth and usage and cost."

Those costs present a potentially daunting challenge.

A key 15-year-old federal program called E-Rate, which discounts Internet access for most Colorado school districts, finds itself fast approaching a financial crisis. That could cause more budget headaches for districts already scrambling to provide basic services.

Colorado has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to narrow the digital divide. But those efforts struggle to keep pace with classroom innovation.

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Education's digital divide more about bandwidth than computer hardware

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -08/20/12)- Although many have no doubts that the education industry will survive, many experts believe that the way the world implements higher education is changing. According to a recent CBS News report, elite universities have responded to these concerns by expanding their curriculum to the Internet. Although online education has been previously doubted as a legitimate way to earn a degree, the creation of free online courses by Harvard, MIT and Stanford has given the practice more credibility. In addition, these programs that are still in their infancy will most likely lay the foundation for how many people approach college in the future. As a private school that prepares students for strong collegiate experiences, York Prep has responded to the rising trend by observing the widespread impact of online education growth.

According to CBS, many international students have responded favorably to the online curricula offered by these noted institutions. Residing in India, Ashwith Rego, a 24-year-old engineering student, explains his education experience, "I never imagined that I would be taught by professors from MIT, let alone for free." While the article pinpoints ways that these programs are beneficial for low-income students or those with busy schedules, York Prep Headmaster Ronald Stewart believes that these programs should also be looked at as a way to enhance every citizen's education.

Stewart explains, "I have listened on my home computer to the complete online lecture series by Michael Sandel of Harvard on Justice, and it was intellectually stimulating and enjoyable. This is the potential of online courses; to provide people from all walks of life the opportunity to hear superb lectures by the best professors in the country. Whether the courses are rigorous enough to deserve college credit or if they can prevent cheating seems secondary to the fact that all of us can enjoy and learn from the best."

However, the education industry is currently in a transition period in which professionals are determining whether online education programs will replace the traditional university altogether or simply expand that experience. While the future remains unseen, the article explains how the shift has benefited universities, "The proliferation of so-called massive open online courses, or MOOCs, has the potential to transform higher education at a time when colleges and universities are grappling with shrinking budgets, rising costs and protests over soaring tuition and student debt."

Having realized the diverse potential York Prep students have in higher education, Ronald Stewart responds to these observations by noting that online education does not necessarily have to be an alternative to the way people learn. He concludes, "Online education can be immensely successful without being considered necessarily as an alternative to a regular college experience. However, for those who do not have the resources of money or time to have that personal college experience, then online courses are a better option than anything else that is currently available."

ABOUT:

York Prep, a private school, was founded by Ronald and Jayme Stewart. Located in New York City's Upper West Side, York Prep offers educational resources to students in grades six through 12. Currently, York Prep has 340 enrolled students, to whom it provides individualized curriculum and course offerings. To learn more, visit yorkprep.org.

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York Prep Reacts to New Online Course Offerings by Elite Universities