Boston, MA (October 25, 2004) � DALBAR, Inc. announced today that Diversified Investment Advisors was awarded the DALBAR Seal of excellence for its retirement plan enrollment kit. The Seal is awarded to outstanding enrollment kits that effectively and efficiently meet the needs of retirement plan participants. Before awarding the Seal, DALBAR conducts a series of tests on the enrollment kit to establish that it meets the principal objectives of its audience.
The results of these tests indicate that Diversified�s enrollment kit successfully meets the requirements of participants. The kit is outstanding in:
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Focusing on content that motivates participants to maximize deferrals, such as pre-calculated slide rulers that help participants determine their contribution rate.
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Avoiding generic �education,� such as investing basics, which distracts readers from the most important desired behavior � maximizing deferrals.
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Avoiding content that alienates readers, including hypothetical participant profiles and complex investing topics such as dollar cost averaging and compounding.
�What truly sets our education materials apart is their proven ability to provide retirement savings plan investors with the information they need to be successful in their retirement planning. Our Plan of a Lifetime education kit is part of a comprehensive approach that proactively guides and educates participants, and most importantly, provides a clear course of action. It�s critical that participants have the tools they need to save and invest wisely for retirement. We are very pleased that our kit has achieved the DALBAR Seal of Excellence, which confirms the strength of our approach,� said Wendy Daniels, Vice President of Marketing at Diversified.
The award of the DALBAR Seal gives Diversified Investment Advisors the right to display the image of the Seal on its enrollment kits and make reference to it for twelve months. Diversified paid DALBAR a nonrefundable fee for conducting the tests that determined the qualification for the Seal.
DALBAR, Inc., the nation�s leading financial-services market research firm, continues its over 25 year commitment to raising the standards of excellence in the industry. With offices in both the US and Canada, DALBAR develops standards for, and provides research, ratings, and rankings of intangible factors to the mutual fund, broker/dealer, managed account, life insurance and property and casualty insurance industries. They include behavior, customer opinion, service quality, communications, Internet services, and financial-professional ratings. www.dalbar.com
Diversified Investment Advisors is a national investment advisory firm specializing in retirement plans. The company�s expertise covers the entire spectrum of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, including: 401(k); 403(b); 457; non-qualified deferred compensation; profit sharing; money purchase; cash balance and Taft-Hartley plans; and rollover and Roth IRA.
Diversified services over $58 billion in retirement plan assets, helping more than 1.2 million Participants save and invest wisely for retirement. Headquartered in Purchase, the company�s regional offices are located in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.