Prudential Retirement Introduces Fiduciary Protection Program

Comprehensive New Program of Tools and Services Helps Plan Sponsors Manage the 'New Realities' of Fiduciary Risk

NEWARK, NJ, December 9, 2004 -- As legal and regulatory pressures on retirement plans continue to mount, Prudential Retirement, a Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) business, has introduced a groundbreaking new program to help retirement-plan sponsors mitigate their exposure to fiduciary risk.

The first of its kind from a major provider of retirement-plan services, Prudential Retirement's new Fiduciary Risk Management(R) program provides a suite of tools and services that address and help retirement-plan sponsors mitigate risk within two long-ignored but critical components of plan management: ongoing operations and employee communications and education.

The new program--Fiduciary Risk Management(R)--goes beyond the traditional risk-management programs that focus only on a plan's investment options and now adds an array of tools, planning and consulting services, performance oversight, documentation, and reporting for a retirement plan's operations and employee communications activities.

Through this market-leading program, Prudential Retirement provides a framework of sound, proven, and consistent risk-management processes and techniques that can help retirement-plan fiduciaries better meet their obligations for both defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) plans.

"We understand the increasingly complex fiduciary responsibilities faced by plan sponsors today and believe this distinctive, new program can help manage risk across the depth and breadth of a retirement plan's various components," said Scott Sleyster, Executive Vice President, Prudential Retirement.

Traditionally, fiduciary-risk management has focused on investment selection and monitoring, and the Due Diligence Advisor(R) (DDA) program, in fact, provides such support, with Prudential Retirement assuming a co-fiduciary role alongside their clients for selection, oversight, and termination of investment managers.

"Now, building on the success we've had with the DDA for investment management, we're confident that we have the proactive risk-management expertise and knowledge to successfully extend our support to operations and communications," Sleyster added.

Among other things, the new Fiduciary Risk Management Program delivers specific tools and processes that help plan sponsors develop and implement defensible fiduciary-protection strategies:

• A detailed annual "Strategic Plan Review" with benchmarked and measurable plan results against goals and objectives;
• Prudential Retirement's "Due Diligence Advisor(R) program, to help select, evaluate, monitor, and report on investment managers;
• A shared co-fiduciary role for Prudential Retirement through its Manager of Managers(R) investment program;
• A range of compliance advisory services;
• An array of "Fiduciary Management Best Practice" guides;
• Customized oversight-and-review package to evaluate operational effectiveness and recommendations for process improvements;
• Detailed measures and documentation of operational results against specific goals and objectives;
• Compliance advisory services, including plan design, compliance monitoring, reporting and disclosure, Form 5500 services, and compliance testing;
• Actuarial Advisory Services, including annual valuation reports, asset/liability modeling, and funding policies;
• Integrated, targeted approach to communications & education with an unwavering focus on measurement and analysis;
• Ongoing actionable measurement and analysis of communications programs and tools; and
• Participant statements for defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) each of which has received the DALBAR "Seal of Excellence," as well as DALBAR's top-ranked Total Retirement Services (TRS) statement. (Prudential Retirement is the only plan provider with top rankings in all three DALBAR categories.

"The new world of fiduciary responsibilities and risk-management now emerging in the retirement business demands innovative and intelligent new solutions," said Sleyster. "We believe that our new Fiduciary Risk Management(R) program offers just such a model and can deliver significant value-added as plan sponsors work to mitigate their risks."

Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and non-profit organizations. Services include state-of-the-art recordkeeping, administration, investment management, comprehensive employee investment education and communications, and trustee services. With over 75 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement meets the needs of two million defined contribution participants and more than one million defined benefit annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $124 billion in retirement account values as of September 30, 2004.

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