CitiStreet enjoyed across-the-board business growth last year, which was marked by the company surpassing 12 million total benefit plan participants served, a doubling in participants since its founding eight years ago, it was announced today.
CitiStreet said that across all defined contribution markets, new and renewed customer commitments added up to $47 billion in assets. Its institutional defined benefit business grew by six plans ranging in size from 5,500 participants to 50,000 participants.
It was the seventh straight full year of growth for CitiStreet since it came into existence as a joint venture between Citigroup and State Street Corp.
“Our long-range goal for steady growth is on track. And we feel very comfortable that sustained growth will continue well into the future,” said Phil Lussier, CitiStreet chairman and CEO. “Our exclusive focus on benefits services, our ability to provide personalized solutions for each plan and strong relationships with our existing customers are keys to this growth.”
He noted that solid existing relationships led to an increase in defined benefit business as customers took advantage of CitiStreet’s leading Total Retirement Outsourcing solution that makes DB and DC benefits information available through a single platform.
“The integration of benefit servicing, which allows sponsors to consolidate outsourcing and reduce costs, will be a significant part of our business going forward,” said Sandy McCarthy, CitiStreet president. “Many plan sponsors are now looking for a long-term integrated approach to benefits that brings together information not just about defined contribution saving, but also pension plan benefits and health care decisions.”
In product and service development last year, CitiStreet announced the launch of its expanded tools and services for fiduciaries in a program called PlanFIRST™. The program includes an online Website, PlanFIRST Online.
The program includes tailored proactive compliance solutions and comprehensive fee disclosure. It also includes fiduciary guides for corporate and governmental sponsors and their counsels, compliance checklists, sample policy statements, sample disclosures, white papers, timely and topical newsletters and Web cast replays and transcripts.
“PlanFIRST encapsulates the high standards of service and care that we deliver to our customers,” said Gary Jenkins, CitiStreet general counsel.
In 2007, CitiStreet announced the rollout of an enhanced managed account service that includes ongoing account monitoring and management, expanded personal evaluation statements with personalized forecasts and an online site exclusively for participants who enroll in the managed account service. The enhanced Professional Account Manager also offers plan sponsors some new reporting tools designed to assist them in meeting their fiduciary monitoring responsibilities set forth in the Pension Protection Act.
“As defined contribution plans continue becoming the main retirement savings vehicle for many Americans, professional advice in accumulation and distribution of assets remains a chief advantage for today’s retirement plan participants as compared to savings plans of the past,” said Ray Martin, president and CEO of CitiStreet Advisors.
CitiStreet also launched a new Web service for benefit plan participants that is a full decision-support service that offers far more opportunities for personalized communications to individual participants such as targeted messages based on demographics, savings trends and other characteristics. The new, easier navigated Web site also includes personal investment performance analysis over any reporting period, a sophisticated savings calculator, direct links to retirement advice and many other features.
“We are proud of our consistent growth. And we will continue to invest in new and enhanced services, and the technology that drives them, to best serve our plans sponsors and their participants,” said McCarthy.
About CitiStreet
CitiStreet, one of the largest global benefits delivery firms in the United States, is headquartered in Quincy, Mass. CitiStreet has 3,000 employees at offices in Somerset, N.J., Jacksonville, Fla., Lewiston, Maine, Boston and field offices around the nation. It also has a division, CitiStreet Australia, with offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. CitiStreet serves more than 12 million participants and administers more than $230 billion in assets in the United States for defined contribution, defined benefit and health and welfare plans of corporate, government, health care, not-for-profit and other organizations. It also serves more than 1 million participants and administers more than $20 billion in assets outside the United States. CitiStreet is a 50/50 joint venture between State Street Corp. (NYSE:STT) and Citigroup (NYSE:C).