Retirement Services
Eastern Bank Retirement Plan Services
A Consultative Approach
Understanding that our clients have a diverse array of needs when it comes to their retirement plan, Eastern Bank Retirement Plan Services follows a consultative, hands-on approach. We help clients navigate complex issues and make informed decisions regarding their plan.
We first need to understand your objectives, your organization, and your employee demographics. From this foundation we can build a program that will best fit your needs, your budget, and most importantly provide a quality retirement program for your employees.
Multiple Platforms Supported
Eastern Bank's Retirement Plan Services believes that no one solution can best fit all situations and therefore we have multiple platforms from which we can select the best for your particular program. We work with many of the industry-leading platform providers such as Fidelity Investments, John Hancock, The Hartford, Principal and others.
In addition, Eastern Bank has developed its own proprietary platform in partnership with Benefits Plans Administrators.
Eastern Bank's Roadways to Retirement program
By combining the best of local and national resources, the Roadways to Retirement program delivers a compelling new answer for today's plan sponsor.
Some of the highlights include:
• Support for all types of retirement plans, including defined contribution, defined benefit, and non-qualified plan arrangements. We deliver a total retirement solution under one roof.
• Comprehensive plan administration as opposed to “recordkeeping”. Rather than tracking only plan participants, we capture data on all of your employees . This allows us to perform eligibility determination, online enrollments, and real-time vesting updates, while greatly simplifying the process for loans, distributions, compliance testing and completion of Form 5500. Our approach is a breath of fresh air for Human Resources.
• Open architecture on plan investments. We currently offer funds from over 125 fund families, and can trade virtually any fund on the NSCC that will operate no load. This flexibility allows you to offer the strongest
possible array of plan investments.
• A comprehensive participant website (scripted in English and Spanish) featuring balance inquiry, investment transfer, loan modeling and initiation, quarterly statement archive, fund fact sheets and prospectuses, automatic rebalancing, online forms, personalized rate of return and other features. Our voice response system is also available on a 24-hour basis, and allows participants to opt out to a participant service representative (Monday through Friday during business hours) with any questions concerning their account.
• 24-hour Internet access for plan sponsors , with balance inquiry capabilities at the plan and participant level, online submission of data and retrieval of valuation reports, an “Action Items” section which updates HR for recent activity, and a wide array of real-time management and demographic reports.
• Comprehensive participant education program . Eastern Bank will meet regularly with your employees through interactive education meetings. Our education campaign also includes comprehensive enrollment booklets, attractive quarterly statements with participant newsletters, web-based education and guidance tools, and other targeted pieces used during the year.
• The assistance of Eastern Bank as your plan trustee . We help you satisfy your fiduciary obligations and maintain a solid documentation trail of decisions that are made over time. Trustee services by Eastern Bank are only available in the Roadways to Retirement program.
• Our retirement specialists are AIF® certified (Accredited Investment Fiduciary) giving them unequaled insight into fiduciary prudence. In fact, Eastern Bank is the only financial services company in the northeast that offers institutional Trustee services and AIF certified specialists under the same roof.
For more information regarding our Retirement Plan Services please call Bob Sweezy in our Salem , Massachusetts office at (978) 741-0706.