The deadline for entering the 2011 Eddy Awards competition is only days away.
Entries are due Oct. 8.
The Eddy Awards, sponsored annually by Pensions & Investments since 1995, recognize plan sponsors and service providers that epitomize the best practices in providing investment education to defined contribution plan participants.
This year, the awards have a new category — fee disclosure and education — and, for the first time, will feature integration of print and new media.
Entry forms are available online, at www.pionline.com/eddy2011. There are separate entry forms for plan sponsors and service providers.
Beginning with entries for the 2011 Eddy Awards, all categories will integrate print and online. Judges of the 2010 awards made this decision after noticing a dramatic increase in the number of entries that had distinct online components, especially in the initial and ongoing investment education categories.
Now, all entries in all categories can include not just printed materials like brochures, postcards, table tents and posters, but also websites, CD-ROMs, e-mails, flashes, videos and the like.
As a result of this change, the “other media” category has been eliminated.
Judges also added the “fee disclosure and education” category. They noted fee information is a relatively new component of investment education for plan participants, and believed efforts at effective fee disclosure education should be rewarded.
In addition, “communicating in a crisis” was eliminated as a category after just one year. Judges said most, if not all, of the specialized investment education resulting from the financial crisis already had been launched.
The 2011 Eddy Awards categories are:
c initial investment education;
c ongoing investment education;
c special projects;
c conversions to new record keepers;
c fee disclosure and education; and
c training and advocacy.
Entries should include web access for judges, such as a temporary user ID and/or password valid through March 15, 2011.
All plan sponsor entries must include documentation that plan executives approved the submission (if they did not submit the entry).
For all plan sponsor entries, each category is divided by type of sponsor (corporate, public, union and not-for-profit) and by size. For service providers, each category is divided by size, and then by whether the entry was prepared for a specific client or is generic.
Service providers may enter the same investment education campaigns in their awards that their clients enter in the plan sponsor awards.
Winners of the 2010 Eddy Awards may not submit the same materials in the 2011 competition, although new materials are welcome from all past winners.
All entries, excluding those in the subcategory of “generic” for service providers, must contain customized materials clearly branded for the plan sponsor.
Each entry must be submitted with a separate entry form and in its own envelope. Multiple entries may be mailed in one package.
Judges — mostly DC plan executives — will consider, among other things, the effectiveness and completeness of the investment education program.
A letter containing evidence of the effectiveness, such as an increase in participation, must accompany the entry.
Winners will be announced at P&I's annual Defined Contribution/401(k) East Coast conference, held March 13-15, 2011, at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Miami.
Complete rules, along with the entry forms, are available at www. pionline.com/eddy2011.
