ACPS Is Transitioning to a New Retirement Plan Provider

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Retirement

You may recall that Human Resources has been working on new retirement savings options. We are excited to share more information about one of those options! After a thorough Request for Proposal and evaluation process, we are pleased to announce that Lincoln Financial Group has been selected as the sole service provider for our new ACPS 403(b) retirement plan. Our transition to Lincoln will bring best-in-class services, a significant reduction in overall fees, and state-of-the-art retirement readiness tools.

For all 403(b) participants, we anticipate a greatly enhanced experience with Lincoln to further help you save and plan for your future, including:

  • A significantly lower and more transparent fee structure, so more of your money can work for you toward retirement and so you have greater awareness of the fees you’re paying;
  • A streamlined and enhanced investment lineup of top performing funds and managers;
  • An online experience to help you understand your retirement income needs and where you stand today in real, everyday terms;
  • Account access and transactional capability on your mobile devices; and
  • Salary-based (not sales staff operating on commission), on-site/virtual service representatives who will provide group financial education and individual consultations.

When will this transition happen?

We will be providing much more information in the coming months, explaining how the transition will take place, key dates throughout the transition (including informational sessions), how and when to set up your account with Lincoln, and options regarding your current 403(b) account balances. We anticipate that employees will be able to begin making contributions into the new plan as of mid-February 2023.

What do I need to do?

At this time, NO ACTION IS REQUIRED on your part, but please see below for information about an upcoming blackout period.

What else do I need to know?

In order to prepare for the transition, we will need to impose a blackout period in January/early February in which you will not be able to enroll in one of the current 403(b) plan options or adjust your current contributions. You will, however, continue to make contributions to your current plan(s), as applicable, until we go live with the new plan. Any changes you wish to make before that time will need to be submitted to the payroll department by December 9, 2022, in order to be in place before the blackout period begins.

If you need to make a change, please complete the 403(b) Contribution Change Form and submit it via email to ACVApayroll@albemarle.org. Please be sure to indicate whether you want the changes to go into place in 2022 or starting in 2023. Note: If you wish to make changes to your current elections that would impact December payroll and wish to make a different election for 2023, you must submit forms for each of those elections.

We will be contacting current 403(b) participants this week with more information about this transition process. We hope you share in our excitement about our new partnership with Lincoln, and we look forward to telling you more about this exciting new opportunity!