Time is running out to nominate executives for the 2016 Excellence and Innovation Awards, sponsored by Pensions & Investments and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.
Entries are due May 27.
These awards are designed to recognize DC plan executives and their employers for well-executed, creative and unusual projects that help ensure participants have an adequate income at retirement.
Now in its fifth year, the program began as the Innovator Awards but now has a new name. When founded, the program aimed to recognize DC plan executives who develop creative and unusual programs to help improve their participants' retirement incomes. But the judges noticed there are multiple factors driving good outcomes, including innovation in design and excellence in execution. The program will now aim to recognize both.
“It was time for the awards to evolve,” said Lew Minsky, executive director of DCIIA based in Jupiter, Fla. “The Innovator Awards were established to recognize DC plan executives who were ahead of the herd in developing programs to help improve their participants' retirement incomes. ... But we've also seen that there are multiple factors driving better participant outcomes. By formally expanding the scope of the program, we will now be better positioned to evaluate and recognize a broader range of plan sponsors who are making a difference for their participants and for the industry as a whole.”
P&I and DCIIA are looking for programs implemented on or after Jan. 1, 2015.
The entry form is available at pionline.com/ innovationawards2016. Self-nominations are encouraged. Nominations also will be accepted from colleagues and from people outside the organization who are familiar with the work being done.
For a look at the 2015 winners, go to pionline.com/innovators2015.
The 2016 winners will be announced at P&I's West Coast Defined Contribution Conference, to be held Oct. 23-25 in San Diego. n
