Financial Engines
VANGUARD FIRST TO COMBINE FINANCIAL ENGINES' ADVISORY SERVICE WITH TRANSACTION & DATA AGGREGATION CAPABILITIES FOR EMPLOYEES
136 Employer Retirement Plan Sponsors Make Financial Engines' Investment Advice a Cornerstone of Their Retirement Plans
Valley Forge, PA and PALO ALTO, Calif., June 5, 2003 – The Vanguard Group today announced that it has rolled out transaction and data aggregation capabilities to retirement plan participants whose employers provide access to the Financial Engines investment advisory service. Vanguard is the first employer-sponsored retirement plan provider to combine these financial management capabilities for retirement plan participants.
The new transaction capability simplifies the saving and investing process for participants by allowing participants to immediately act on the advice recommendations provided by Financial Engines with a quick click of the mouse. The data aggregation service enables participants to automatically load personal financial data from accounts outside their employer-sponsored plan into the Financial Engines service. Employer clients that sign up for Financial Engines' Total Portfolio Advice service will also receive data aggregation services. The Total Portfolio Advice service analyzes all participant holdings and provides investment recommendations that are both tax-efficient and diversified across all accounts.
"We believe that investment advice should be available to every retirement plan participant and our relationship with Financial Engines is critical to helping us make that vision a reality," said F. William McNabb, Managing Director, Vanguard Client Relationship Group. "The new transaction and aggregation capabilities further enable plan participants to incorporate Financial Engines' advice recommendations while taking their entire financial picture into consideration. We are pleased to be working with Financial Engines to offer this best-of-breed advice solution to our clients."
In 2001, Vanguard and Financial Engines announced a relationship to make Financial Engines' investment advice available at no charge to participants in Vanguard employer retirement plans that subscribe to the service. Since that time, Vanguard has steadily rolled out Financial Engines' investment advisory service to 136 of Vanguard's plan sponsor clients, making advice available to more than 541,000 employer retirement plan participants, or 23 percent of the participants Vanguard serves.
"Vanguard is the leader in making advice-enabled retirement plans a standard offering for plan sponsors, and the addition of transaction and data aggregation capabilities enhances the value they provide," said Jeff Maggioncalda, President and CEO of Financial Engines. "Retirement security is our top priority at Financial Engines and we are pleased to work with partners like Vanguard to deliver on that goal."
Vanguard and Financial Engines continue to see strong results regarding how plan participants are benefiting from advice. For example, since Vanguard's introduction of Financial Engines' service in June 2001, some 21 percent of Vanguard users increased their level of savings to their employer-sponsored plan. "Many plan sponsors have received very favorable feedback from their participants on how Financial Engines has helped them get their financial house in order," said Mr. McNabb. "The increase in savings rates is a strong indication of how the service is helping participants get on the road toward achieving their retirement goals."
About The Vanguard Group
The Vanguard Group, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is the nation's second largest mutual fund firm and a leading provider of employer sponsored-retirement plan services. Vanguard serves some 17 million shareholder accounts and manages more than $600 billion in U.S. assets, including more than $170 billion in participant-directed defined contribution retirement plans. Vanguard offers 112 funds to U.S. investors and 36 additional funds in foreign markets.
About Financial Engines
Financial Engines provides advice technology and services to help financial institutions and employers address real-world investor needs for their clients and employees. Financial Engines' services provide specific, actionable investment recommendations based on the outcomes an investor wants to achieve and can be delivered through the web, phone, or face-to-face. More than 15 financial institutions and 900 plan sponsors have hired Financial Engines to make advice available to over 3.0 million individuals. Nobel Prize winning economist William F. Sharpe founded the company with a revolutionary vision: to help financial institutions and employers make institutional-quality advice available to individual investors. For more information on Financial Engines, visit www.financialengines.com.
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Vanguard® funds are offered by prospectus only. Prospectuses contain more complete information on risks, advisory fees, distribution charges, and other expenses and should be read carefully before you invest or send money. Prospectuses for Vanguard funds can be obtained directly from the Vanguard Group, 1-800-662-7447. Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor.
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