66 recognized for DC education in P&I’s Eddy Awards

Sixty-six plan sponsors and service providers snagged top honors at Pensions & Investments' 2020 Eddy Awards held in Orlando, Fla., as part of P&I's annual East Coast Defined Contribution Conference.

The Eddy Award winners were recognized for diverse communication campaigns covering everything from "rainy day" funds to rollovers and required minimum distributions.

Awards were given in six categories: plan conversions, financial wellness, plan transitions, pre-retirement preparation, special projects and ongoing investment education.

In the conversions category, two manufacturers tied for first place for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees: Philips North America (service provider: Prudential Retirement) and Lockheed Martin (Empower Retirement).

Two other first-place winners in the conversions category were Contra Costa County (Empower Retirement) for public plans with more than 5,000 employees and Providence St. Joseph Health (Fidelity Investments) for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees.

In the financial wellness category, two corporate sponsors grabbed first place: Southern Co. (Smith Communication Partners) for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees and Dawn Food Products (Prudential Retirement) for those with 1,000 to 5,000 employees. Catholic Health Initiatives (Fidelity Investments) took first place for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees, and Nassau County Deferred Compensation Plan (Prudential Retirement) for public plans with more than 5,000 employees.

In the plan transitions category, New York-Presbyterian Retirement Plans (Prudential Retirement) landed the top award for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees as did Kemper (Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement & Trust) for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees.

In the pre-retirement preparation category, there were four first-place stars: ADP TotalSource (Voya Financial) for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees; Mortgage Guaranty Insurance (Francis Investment Counsel) for corporate plans with fewer than 1,000 employees; St. Luke's University Health Network (Transamerica) for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees; and the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, U.S. Office of Personnel Management and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a joint campaign for public plans with more than 5,000 employees.

The category of special projects produced a slew of first-place winners, among them American Express (Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement & Trust) for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (T. Rowe Price) for corporate plans with fewer than 5,000 employees. Missouri State Employees Retirement System snatched first place for public plans with more than 5,000 employees, Penn State Health (Empower Retirement) for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees, and NFL Player Benefits Office (Cloudberry Creative) for union plans with more than 5,000 employees. University of Minnesota Physicians (Empower Retirement) and The University of Chicago Medicine (MassMutual) tied for first among not-for-profit/other plans with fewer than 5,000 employees.

In the ongoing investment education category, NFL Player Benefits Office (Cloudberry Creative) was first among union plans with more than 5,000 employees.

Other first-place finishers were Yale University (TIAA-CREF) for not-for-profit/other plans with more than 5,000 employees, Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System for public plans with more than 5,000 employees, and National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia for corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees. Johnson Outdoors (Francis Investment Counsel) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (Voya Financial) tied for first place among corporate plans with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.

In addition to honoring sponsors and their service providers, the Eddy Awards judges also cited generic education efforts by service providers. SmartDollar and TIAA tied for first in the financial wellness category; Janus Henderson Investors placed first in pre-retirement preparation; T. Rowe Price ranked first in special projects; and AllianceBernstein came in first in ongoing investment education.