N.Y. Life unveils retirement analysis tools

New York Life Retirement Plan Services is taking a page from retailers like Amazon.com Inc. in order to better understand and predict employee retirement planning behavior. The unit of New York Life Investment Management LLC today introduced a program that uses a “unique” cluster analysis process that allows New York Life Retirement Plan Services to categorize participants into six segments according to behavioral, attitudinal and demographic factors. Armed with that information, the Parsippany, N.J. -based unit said it can work more effectively with employers to provide customized tools to fit the differing needs of participants within their plans. For example, Seattle-based Amazon.com can predict -- based on past buying patterns -- what books a customer might like to buy in the future; similarly, New York Life’s new diagnostic program will help determine what will work best with different types of retirement plan participants, Wendy Wong, vice president of marketing at New York Life Retirement Plan Services, said. For example, one segment tends to be lower-paid and juggling financial priorities and that segment has a strong need for the plan sponsor to push basic 401(k) education concepts as well as offering “do-it-for-you” tools such as managed accounts, which essentially do the investing and saving for the participant.