Fidelity Completes Major Upgrade of NetBenefits Website
Access to New Health Management Center and Integrated Retirement Focus Lead Major Enhancements
BOSTON, MA, October 12, 2004 -- Fidelity Investments today announced a large-scale redesign of its NetBenefits
SM Web site, featuring a Total Retirement focus and access to a new Health Management Center provided by WebMD, that deliver more personalized benefits information to millions of employees and retirees when and where they need it, to help them use, manage, view and analyze their workplace benefits in a more integrated and meaningful way.
For the more than 18 million US employees and retirees in retirement and benefits plans serviced by Fidelity, NetBenefits provides the industry's most comprehensive array of benefits management and HR services information, tools, and resources under a single log-in. Fidelity's unprecedented level of personalization throughout the site, and new content and tools allow employers to present the most relevant information to each participant.
Additionally, the enhancements better integrate all benefits – 401k and pension plans, health, dental and other benefit programs, and payroll services – to help employers communicate their total compensation and benefits offering.
The new information architecture, including a simplified layout, graphic representations, and user-friendly language, benefits existing participants, allowing them to easily navigate and quickly access important information. It also helps attract new employees who may not have previously utilized the site.
"In redesigning the site, we had two principle areas of focus," said Jane Jamieson, executive vice president of Fidelity Employer Services Company. "The first was to provide a comprehensive, retirement management capability that combines all of Fidelity's resources, including those of our retail site at Fidelity.com. The second was to deliver a more integrated benefits management capability for our fully outsourced clients to give employees a single place where they can manage all of their benefits." The redesign is based on feedback that Fidelity has collected from millions of employees and employers through extensive lab and usability testing, and marks the most significant enhancement to NetBenefits since its inception in 1996. The upgrades are scheduled to be available to all Fidelity clients by early 2005.
Total Retirement Focus
Fidelity has consolidated information from its "Accounts," "Pension," and "Planning" tabs into one integrated "Savings and Retirement" tab on the NetBenefits Web site. In addition to all of the functionality of the existing tabs, for the first time, the new focus allows participants to view detailed information of all of their Fidelity retirement accounts simultaneously. It also enables them to manage their overall retirement portfolio, prepare for retirement, and formulate long-term financial goals.
For the first time, the new design aggregates an employee's workplace retirement benefits, 401k and pension, with other personal investment accounts, such as IRAs, to provide a total retirement picture for more comprehensive management and planning. This personalized view provides access to real-time information such as plan summaries, investments tracking, and in-depth portfolio research and analysis via an interactive graphic environment that is centralized and easier to navigate.
Participants visiting the retirement site can now also access an enhanced Tools and Learning section from the main retirement page. The collection of interactive educational tools within are organized by need, such as "investing for the future" and "preparing for retirement," enabling investors of all levels to easily identify and utilize the tools that are most relevant to their needs. Users will also continue to benefit from Fidelity's comprehensive catalog of learning materials for all levels of investors, from basic introductory articles for the emerging investor, to in-depth real-time eLearning sessions that more advanced participants can access anytime, from any personal computer.
Comprehensive Retirement Income Planning
The Total Retirement focus also features Fidelity Retirement Income AdvantageSM, the new comprehensive program designed to help active and retired employees make the transition from saving for retirement to living in retirement. The program provides financial management and guidance tools for all phases of the income planning process, including:
- Retirement Quick Check – A 15-minute assessment to help those saving for retirement see if they are on track to meet their goals for monthly income during retirement.
- Income Estimator – A calculator to help retirees, or employees getting ready to retire, estimate how much pre-tax income they may be able to withdraw from their Fidelity accounts during retirement.
- Retirement Income Planner – A comprehensive tool to help retirees, or those getting ready to retire, develop an in-depth plan for retirement.
New Health Care Portal
Employers and participants with health plans serviced by Fidelity now have access to an expanded set of services through the NetBenefits Web site, including a new Health Management Center, provided by WebMD. The Health Management Center is designed to help employers manage rising health care costs by providing employees with tools and information to make informed health care decisions.
The Fidelity Health Management Center has the capability to couple WebMD's health content and tools with additional content, information and services from additional leading providers, including:
- Mayo Clinic, which provides leading health care content in the areas of diseases and conditions, healthy living and guidance from industry specialists; and
- Health Dialog, which provides Health Coaching for chronic conditions and significant medical decisions to help employees become more actively engaged in managing their healthcare with their physicians.
A key feature of the center is the WebMD Health Risk Assessment, an advanced health profiling/risk assessment tool that scores a user's health status and estimates an employee's risk of future health problems based on their individual conditions and behaviors such as high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking. The tool provides recommendations for health improvement and behavior changes that the employee can make to improve their overall health.
This information can then be integrated with an employee's personal health record that they create in a secure environment within the portal. When combined with the comprehensive suite of decision-support tools and resources, this information allows for a highly personalized health management resource for participants and their families. The health portal also allows employers to learn more about the health of their employee population as a whole by looking at anonymous aggregated data. They can then take action to help better manage their overall health care costs by proactively providing pertinent health information to all employees through the Health Management Center or via e-mail, while still ensuring confidentiality.
Other key enhancements to the NetBenefits site include a new Home page design for easier navigation and enhanced employer branding, helps employers communicate their total benefits offering. In addition, a "Your Profile" tab provides participants with one centralized area to easily access and maintain personal information, e-mail and log-in preferences.
Award-Winning Site
Since its introduction in 1996, the NetBenefits site has continually received recognition from participants and the industry, and is currently ranked among the top plan sponsor Web sites. Recent awards include recognition among the Top 5 2004 plan sponsor Web sites by Kasina (2004), DCP's First Place award for Overall Satisfaction (2001-2003); HR.com's Award for Excellence (2003), the Crystal Award for Excellence (2003), and the MEFA STAR Award for Best Online Innovation/ Planning Center (2003).
About Fidelity Employer Services Company
Fidelity Employer Services Company provides benefits and human resources administration, workforce effectiveness, payroll solutions and stock plan services to over 18 million employees in the U.S. as of August 31, 2004. Additionally, through its HR Access acquisition, Fidelity provides HR and payroll applications for about 12 million employees in Europe.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $1.9 trillion, including managed assets of $1.0 trillion as of August 31, 2004. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 21 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediaries. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.Fidelity.com.
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