Jersey City, the second-most-populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, will continue to utilize Prudential Retirement as the recordkeeper for its $208 million governmental retirement plan.
Prudential Retirement, among the industry’s largest recordkeepers, is a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc.
“Our renewed partnership with Jersey City serves as a proof point of our commitment to solving the retirement savings challenges of government employees and showcases the confidence public sector employers have in us as a trusted partner and advisor,” said Michael Knowling, senior vice president and head of Client Relations and Business Development at Prudential Retirement.
Jersey City has 2,100 participants in its retirement plan and has been a client of Prudential Retirement for 17 years. The new contract became effective Jan. 1, 2018.
Michael Knowling
Prudential continues to see momentum in the governmental market. Most recently the state of Vermont hired Prudential Retirement as the third-party administrator for the state’s five defined contribution plans, with $576 million in plan assets across the five plans.
Pensions have been the centerpiece of a secure retirement for many workers employed by the public sector, with 63 percent saying having one has “significantly influenced” their decision to pursue a career in the public sector, according to a report commissioned by Prudential Retirement.
But as more and more states and municipalities are forced to cut back on pensions, public sector employers are rethinking how they will attract talent in the future. Many are turning to defined contribution plans to supplement the pensions they offer to employees and modernizing their overall benefits package to engage and incentivize employees.
Prudential’s partnership with Jersey City has delivered impressive outcomes since 2001. Plan assets have grown from $85 million to $195 million—a 129 percent increase. Plan participation rates have also remained steady at 84 percent, which is higher than the 2017 industry average of 78 percent, cited by NAGDCA. In addition, 66 percent of plan participants are also utilizing Prudential’s proprietary tool, Goalmaker—enabling them to establish a custom asset allocation strategy to achieve their retirement savings goals.
