MEMO
To:
All Sherman Services Employees
From:
Delores McClain
Date:
February 28, 2001
Because saving for retirement is such an important issue for everyone, we are
pleased to announce new and exciting changes to the Virtual Resource Management
Corp. 401(k) Plan. Effective May 1,
2001, the current Merrill Lynch plan will be replaced by a comprehensive turnkey
retirement program offered by ING Reliastar Financial Corporation. After an
extensive review of our current plan, we decided ING
Reliastar offered better benefits and satisfied our major motivation for
this change: improved record keeping, investment management, and communication
services.
A key aspect of any retirement plan is record keeping. ING
Reliastar offers premier record keeping and administration services using
state-of-the-art technology to manage every facet of your account at no cost to
you. We will pick up all costs to provide this benefit to you. Some of the
record keeping services include:
Daily investment updates;
Same day processing of investment transfers,
withdrawals, loans and hardship requests;
Convenient participant access to a Voice
Response System, Call Center and Internet site.
Participants can use a touch-tone phone, 24 hours a day,
to:
Check daily balances by source and
investment;
Obtain investment option information;
Make investment transfers;
Request loans and withdrawals;
Transfer to customer service representatives.
Through the call center, participants can
speak to Customer Service Representatives who provide assistance with all plan
related questions:
Assist participants with loan modeling and
withdrawals;
Issue participant statements as requested;
Answer questions on the administration of the
plan;
Fulfill requests for plan and investment
information;
Provide historical research.
ING
Reliastar has one of the premier Internet sites. Through a secured site,
participants are able to view their account information and also manage their
accounts. Participants are able to:
Review their investment and account balances;
Review plan features including withdrawal information;
Model loan options;
Same day transfer of money among investments;
Change investment percentages;
Request loan and distribution paperwork.
In
addition, you will receive timely and easy to read statements on your account.
They will be delivered to your home 15 days following the end of the quarter.
The
second key aspect of any retirement plan is investments. You will have access to
a number of Americas most respected mutual fund managers: AIM, Alger,
Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Lord Abbett, Neuberger Berman,
Oppenheimer, Pilgrim, Prudential, Salomon Brothers and Warburg Pincus. In a
comparison of the existing investment options to the investment options that ING
Reliastar has to offer, we found that all have lower expense ratios and have
historically performed better in their respective asset classes.
The
final key aspect of retirement plans is communication and education. ING
Reliastar is committed to providing ongoing support to achieve the highest level
of participation. There will be a plan specialist who is both a Certified
Financial Planner and Certified Retirement Plan Specialist. This specialist will
meet with all employees both initially and on an ongoing basis in order to
effectively communicate the specifics of the plan, review the plan investments,
and cover important investment and retirement planning concepts.
In
addition, each of you will receive a customized enrollment booklet, which
incorporates a personalized savings illustration for every plan participant. The
plan specialist will also be available for one-on-one counseling after each
group session to advise you not only on your retirement plan but also for any of
your other financial needs. This is again at no cost to you.
ING
Reliastar has over 60 years experience in administering qualified retirement
plans and is the 10th largest company in the world with almost $500 billion
dollars of assets under management. As Plan Sponsor and participant of the
Virtual Resource Management 401(k) plan, I am very excited to bring you the new
changes. This is one way of saying we are committed to improving the benefits in
all the ways that count for you.
There
will be more information distributed in the weeks to come. If you have any
questions or concerns, please call me at (609) 208-2400.
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