Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Login
  • My Account
  • Logout
  • Register For Free
  • Subscribe
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • CIOs
    • Consultants
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • Face to Face
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Partner Content
    • Private Credit
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Regulation
    • Special Reports
    • Washington
    • White Papers
  • International
    • U.K.
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Australia - New Zealand
    • Middle East
    • Latin America
    • Africa
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • WPS Innovation Awards
    • Influential Women in Institutional Investing 2024
    • Eddy Awards
  • Resource Guides
    • Active Thematic Global Equities
    • Retirement Income
    • Fixed Income
    • Pension Risk Transfer
    • Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs)
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    • ESG Investing | Industry Brief
    • Innovation in ESG Investing
    • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Divestment Database
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • The Plan Sponsor's Guide to Retirement Income
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • DC Plan Design: Improving Participant Outcomes
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Research Center
    • The P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
  • Print
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Print
March 07, 2016 12:00 AM

Prudential Retirement president recognized with Lillywhite Award

Robert Steyer
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    William Neumann
    Christine Marcks was chosen for her work on retirement planning and financial literacy.

    Christine Marcks, president of Prudential Retirement, has been named the 2015 winner of the Lillywhite Award, which honors people who have made contributions to Americans' economic security.

    Ms. Marcks “has been an active party to improving the state of knowledge” of retirement planning and financial literacy, said Dallas Salisbury, president emeritus of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, Washington, which sponsors the award.

    Ms. Marcks joined Prudential Retirement, Hartford, Conn., a unit of Prudential Financial Inc., in 2007. The award recognizes her entire career, which includes executive roles at ING Group — now Voya Financial — and Aetna Inc. as well as working as an international economist at the Treasury Department.

    During her tenure, Prudential “has been an extra innovator in the nature of financial education efforts” both for participants and the general public, Mr. Salisbury said. Prudential “has helped people readily understand the impact of building savings over time.”

    Some of that education has been in the form of television commercials describing the need for saving early, using approaches gleaned from consumer behavior research.

    “The focal point of the ad campaign is to take complex financial topics and simplify them,” said Ms. Marcks. The ads have illustrated issues such as longevity risk and the impact of compounding.

    For example, Prudential has run commercials based on a “Race for Retirement” event in November in Washington to illustrate peoples' retirement readiness.

    One commercial encourages people to save an additional 1% more per year for retirement. Another follows people running through gates along a “Race For Retirement” course. One gate has a sign that asks, “Are you completely prepared for retirement?” but shows most racers running through the NO portal. At another gate whose sign asked runners if they can they give 1% more for retirement, most ran through the YES portal.

    Another ad explored the “action gap,” asking younger people at what age they think they should start saving for retirement and asking older people when they actually started investing for retirement.

    Age gap

    The gap — the younger people supported early saving; the older people showed they were saving late — was illustrated on a large wall comparing the results. “If we start saving a little more today,” the announcer in the ad explained, “we will be better prepared for tomorrow.”

    Prudential has used the ads as education tools when its representatives meet with participants, said Ms. Marcks.

    But Prudential also uses other strategies to deliver a message about saving for retirement early and often.

    Ms. Marcks referenced one session in which Prudential representatives met with a client who was concerned participants in the plan weren't saving enough. “People don't think of their future self,” she said. “It's a stranger.”

    So Prudential employed aging software to give participants a glimpse of their future selves, and the plan's participation rate went up, she said.

    Mr. Salisbury also praised Ms. Marcks for Prudential's pioneering work in providing lifetime income statements to participants, enabling them to better understand how much money they will need — given their spending goals — in retirement.

    Participants looking at an account balance might underestimate how much they need for a comfortable retirement, Ms. Marcks said. “When they see savings as an income stream, they see what they need,” she explained. When people read these statements, it “makes them behave differently than just seeing an account balance.”

    Among her other accomplishments, Ms. Marcks has guided Prudential to prominent marketplace roles for retirement income solutions in defined contribution plans using a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit embedded within a plan's target-date portfolio and for derisking strategies for defined benefit plans. Derisking clients include General Motors Co., Detroit; Verizon Communications Inc., New York, and Motorola Solutions Inc., Schaumburg, Ill.

    Ms. Marcks' role as an educator isn't confined to Prudential. Among her other roles, she is a member of the board of trustees of EBRI; a trustee of her alma matter, Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.; and a trustee of the Greater Hartford YMCA.

    The Lillywhite Award is named for Ray Lillywhite, a pioneer in the pension investment field who spent more than 55 years in the industry. EBRI established the award in 1992 to honor long-term contributions in fields such as pension/retirement administration, investment management, consulting on investments or benefits and education research. n

    Related Articles
    Nominations for 2016 Lillywhite Award now open
    Prudential Retirement picks new CEO to replace retiring Christine Marcks
    Nestle USA retirement investments leader to receive EBRI's Lillywhite Award
    Recommended for You
    Money manager DC assets shift over time
    Read the print edition of P&I
    Citadel's Ken Griffin gives $125 million to Chicago museum; name will change
    Citadel's Ken Griffin gives $125 million to Chicago museum; name will change
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    The State of Lifetime Income Report
    The Next Wave of LDI Evolution
    Retirement security to future income wins, TIAA brings you the latest financial…
    U.S. Public Funds Top Performers: Q2 2024
    Generative AI Investing: Opportunities at a Key Tech Inflection Point
    Research for Institutional Money Management: Advancing Physical Risk Modelling,…
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    October 23, 2023 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Custom Content
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2025. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • CIOs
      • Consultants
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • Face to Face
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Partner Content
      • Private Credit
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Regulation
      • Special Reports
      • Washington
      • White Papers
    • International
      • U.K.
      • Canada
      • Europe
      • Asia
      • Australia - New Zealand
      • Middle East
      • Latin America
      • Africa
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • WPS Innovation Awards
      • Influential Women in Institutional Investing 2024
      • Eddy Awards
    • Resource Guides
      • Active Thematic Global Equities
      • Retirement Income
      • Fixed Income
      • Pension Risk Transfer
      • Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs)
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
      • ESG Investing | Industry Brief
      • Innovation in ESG Investing
      • ESG Rated ETFs
      • Divestment Database
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • The Plan Sponsor's Guide to Retirement Income
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • DC Plan Design: Improving Participant Outcomes
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Research Center
      • The P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
    • Print