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Why Effective Communication Matters for Public Pensions
With declining financial literacy rates, growing distrust and scrutiny of government agencies, and increasing opportunities for misinformation to spread rapidly, pension funds face a growing number of obstacles with their communications.
By: Hank Kim, NCPERSAs long-term investors, public pensions inevitably face good times and bad. Anticipating the downturns and implementing proper risk mitigation strategies are key for a fund's investment strategies—and the same logic applies to its communications.
Just as the investment landscape looks dramatically different today than it did 20 years ago, the communications landscape has rapidly evolved. But with declining financial literacy rates, growing distrust and scrutiny of government agencies, and increasing opportunities for misinformation to spread rapidly, pension funds face a growing number of obstacles with their communications.
Pension funds must create engaging and accessible communications that resonate across multiple generations—where some prefer to get their news from TikTok and others prefer the morning paper. They're often tasked with ensuring 20-somethings understand the implications of their retirement plan choices that may not affect them till 40 years later or communicating bad news about cost-of-living adjustments to retirees on a fixed income.
While most plan participants cannot ‘shop around' for a pension like they might a bank, a fund's communications strategy can greatly impact sentiment and stakeholder trust. Over the past few decades, many plans have faced the tough choice of creating new tiers with reduced benefits to ensure their long-term fiscal sustainability. As this cohort of employees approaches retirement, there has been growing resentment about these changes seen at plans across the country. Clear communication and ongoing financial education can help prevent surprises—and help ensure plan participants have saved appropriately to supplement their pensions in retirement.
And the stakes are high: Ineffective communications can contribute to the spread of misinformation, loss of stakeholder trust, reputational damage, reduced credibility with policymakers and the media—or worse.
NCPERS launched the inaugural Pension Communications Summit in 2023 to provide space for pension professionals to discuss solutions to many of these challenges, participate in peer-to-peer learning, and help advance the industry's communications strategies. This community of pension professionals has rapidly grown since then, and we look forward to welcoming a record number of attendees to Washington, DC for the 2025 Pension Communications Summit later this month.
This year's agenda addresses many of the key challenges plans should be prepared for and highlights successful strategies being implemented across the country. Attendees will learn strategies for effectively communicating in a high-jargon industry, get tips for developing engaging multimedia content, find lessons learned from developing a financial wellness program, and much more.
Be sure to register for the Pension Communications Summit by January 17th to secure the discounted early-bird rates and to sign up to participate in the Communications Roundtable for virtual peer-to-peer learning year-round.
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