Company seeks to help employees pay bills and save for emergencies with new integrated service

Empower Retirement today is announcing plans to offer plan participants the ability to manage a greater portion of their finances when they go online to access their retirement account.

Through a new exclusive agreement with Atlanta-based DoubleNet Pay, Empower participants will have the ability to pay household bills, pay down debt and contribute to savings accounts. The service is designed to automatically track employees’ bills and due dates and seamlessly schedule payments around their paycheck cycles, leaving employees with an exact amount for discretionary spending. It also sets aside savings based on personal goals.

"One of the first steps toward saving for tomorrow is effectively managing one’s finances today,” said Edmund F. Murphy, III, president of Empower Retirement. “With this innovative new offering, we’re taking the next step to further add value to clients and participants by providing a new vehicle to ultimately help them prepare for retirement."

The new service, which Empower will begin offering to select clients in coming months, will be an option available to participants in plans using Empower’s suite of automated payroll services.

Brian Cosgray, Chief Executive Officer of DoubleNet Pay said, "Empower offers clients a highly successful participant experience that simplifies managing their plan to create income in retirement. These new features will provide a parallel path to managing personal finances."

Murphy said, "We know that among Empower’s eight million participants there are lots of hard working employees who want or need help managing their short term finances with an automated solution. Empower is pleased to soon be offering a tool to provide that assistance."

Cosgray noted that a key benefit to the service is that it builds in the discipline and organization that some busy workers might not have -- and thereby reduces the risk that they will face late charges, overdraft fees and related complications.

Through the “Empower Wellness and Financial Center” visitors get information to help them make decisions today that will increase income in retirement later in life. As individuals gain better control of their daily finances, they will likely have more money to set aside for retirement.  Research by Empower Retirement shows that savings rates are a significant contributing factor to generating income in retirement.¹

Participants who sign up for the new service –for a moderate fee-- will be able to interface with the service through the Empower Retirement participant experience. Participant funds are held in an FDIC-insured savings account at DoubleNet Pay’s partner bank and available to them at any time.

¹ "Lifetime Income Score VI: The Road Best Traveled," April 2016.

About DoubleNet Pay

DoubleNet Pay is an enterprise grade software engine that powers the automation of foundational best financial practices for employees including contributing to an Emergency Fund each pay day so an employee is prepared for an unexpected expense, and tracking and paying upcoming bills each pay day so that surprise bills are minimized and the employee can see what’s left for spending.  Headquartered in Atlanta, DoubleNet Pay partners with retirement, payroll, and benefit providers who wish to offer a secure cash flow management solution within their existing platform experience using DoubleNet Pay's plug and play solution. For more information, please visit www.DoubleNetPay.com

About Empower

Headquartered in metro Denver, Empower Retirement administers $435 billion in assets for more than 8 million participants as of 3/31/16. It is the nation’s second-largest retirement plan record keeper by total participants (Pensions & Investments, April 2016; data as of 9/30/15). Empower serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans, small, midsize, and large corporate 401(k) clients, non-profit 403(b) entities and private-label recordkeeping clients. For more information, please visit www.empower-retirement.com.

Media Contact:

Stephen Gawlik – 303-737-0899 (office), 617-417-4408 (cell)

Learn More

To learn more about how we’re empowering plan sponsors and their participants to be more engaged in their retirement plans than ever before, call us at 800-719-9914.