Participant Bulletin Board
Masterypoint on the Participant Website
BPAH is pleased to announce the rollout of Masterypoint – a comprehensive investment education and guidance suite within our participant website. Masterypoint serves as a replacement and upgrade of our previous education application, and is available to all plans and participants as of August 22, 2008.
To access Masterypoint, please visit the Education tab of the participant website and select the first link on the navigation bar. (The site can also be found within the education tab of the plan sponsor website). The site consists of several modules:
This website enhancement is provided to clients at no cost. We encourage participants to take full advantage of this new program to make the most out of their retirement journey
Year To Date Deposits by Source Report
This new report in the Account Inquiry tab of the participant website allows the participant to see the total deposits that have been made to their account on a year-to-date basis, broken down for the various money sources within the plan (employee pre-tax, Roth, rollover, company matching, profit sharing, etc) . The report includes the total amount contributed year-to-date for each source, as well as the amount of the last deposit for each source and the date it traded into the account. This information can be useful as part of your overall retirement planning efforts.
Year To Date Personalized Rate of Return
This new report in the Account Inquiry tab of the participant website allows the participant to visualize the year-to-date performance of their account, updated through the present day. While the personalized rate of return calculation included in quarterly statements is more precise (and there are several basis caveats to this report), the report makes it easy to assess your year-to-date investment results as part of an overall asset allocation strategy.
New Inception-To Date Statement Report Now Available
BPAH is pleased to announce a new report in the Account Inquiry tab of the participant website. The inception to date statement now comes in two formats – one showing results by investment and a second version illustrating results by source (or money type) within the plan. These reports allow you to visualize total activity within your account since it was first placed on the BPAH system. The Inception to Date Statement (by source) report allows you to see the total contributions made to your account from each source (employee pre-tax, Roth, rollover, employer matching, profit sharing, etc) as well as the total earnings that have accumulated in each source since inception. This can be a helpful way to visualize the overall progress being made within your account over time.
In addition, we have made some changes to make the Activity History report easier to use, and extended the date range for this report.
We hope these changes are helpful as you use the participant website.
New Loan Request Process
Effective June 17th, 2008, BPAH is pleased to announce a new feature to further automate the loan request process for plans that offer traditional loans. As before, participants will be able to perform loan availability and modeling within the participant website where the Plan permits. However, the loan paperwork will now be available directly in the participant website, where it can be printed, completed, signed and faxed back to BPAH for processing.
How it works:
The participant models a loan by going to the “Request Changes” tab and choosing “Loan Modeling” on the left navigational strip (no change).
The loan choices available in the plan will be displayed, including the ability to print the form, or have it mailed if a printer is not available to the participant.
Once the terms of the loan modeling are satisfactory, the participant may choose “Submit Loan Forms Request”.
The application and amortization schedule will be generated and posted to the “Mail Tab” of the website in a PDF file within minutes.
The entire application can then be printed, completed, signed, and faxed or mailed to BPA for processing.
Additional notes:
If participants do not have a printer available, they can access the website later from another computer that has a printer, and print the paperwork from the Mail Tab.
If participants do not have internet access, our current process will still apply: a participant would call the automated Voice Response Unit (VRU), or our CSR team to request loan paperwork and have it mailed to their home address.
If participants need assistance from HR to initiate a loan request, the same steps can be completed by HR through the plan sponsor website. (This will be particularly helpful in loan requests where a “time crunch” is involved).
For a sample of what the new dynamic forms package looks like, please click the following links: Sample Loan Application and Sample Amortization Schedule.
By making the loan paperwork available immediately and eliminating mailing time (potentially in two directions), this should reduce loan turnaround time significantly. We hope you find the new feature helpful. We look forward to expanding this functionality to other types of withdrawal requests in the future. Please continue to check the Participant and Plan Sponsor Bulletin Boards for announcements as additional product enhancements are made.
AIM Fund CUSIP Changes and Fund Name Changes.
AIM has announced cusip and fund name changes , that will take effect on April 30, 2008 and May 1, 2008 as outlined here. Select the links below for details.
If you have any questions, please contact Invesco Aim Dealer Services at 800-949-4246.
Dreyfus has made the following announcements regarding mergers of the below mentioned funds.
Effective April 25, 2008 the Dreyfus Premier Managed Income fund will merge into the Dreyfus Intermediate Term Income Fund. Upon the merger on April 25, 2008, the Intermediate Term Income Fund will change its name to Dreyfus Premier Intermediate Term Income Fund.
Also effective April 25, 2008, the Dreyfus Founders Balanced Fund will be merging into the Dreyfus LifeTime Growth and Income Fund.
Federated International Small Company Fund changes name
Effective March 31, 2008 the Federated International Small Company fund will undergo a name change to Federated International Small-Mid Company Fund. The ticker symbol for this fund (ISCAX, or as applicable to the share class) will remain the same. For additional information on this fund, please visit www.federatedinvestors.com.
Important notice: Excelsior Funds becoming Columbia Funds
During 2007, the Excelsior family of funds was acquired by Columbia Funds. As of 3/28/2008, the Excelsior Funds will undergo a name change from “Excelsior” to “Columbia”. Ticker symbols for these funds will remain the same, but fund CUSIPs are changing, and certain share class names will be modified as well. Of particular note in the BPAH platform is Excelsior Value & Restructuring (ticker symbol UMBIX). This fund will be renamed as the Columbia Value & Restructuring Fund, using the same ticker symbol. Note that the 60 day trading restriction that existed with UMBIX (and many other Excelsior Funds, with the exception of certain international funds) will be removed once this transfer is effective.
For additional information on this fund action, please visit http://www.columbiafunds.com/Excelsior.htm
This name change will not present any blackout period or other disruption for plan participants.