Retirement savings plan to launch new Web site in May

The Thrift Savings Plan will unveil a redesigned Web site in May, while continuing a campaign to prompt more employees to supplement agency contributions with their own investments, officials said during a meeting on Tuesday.

The redesign "was a huge project," said Renee Wilder, director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's Office of Research and Strategic Planning. "We're trying to fit all of these initiatives in and get them done properly and roll them out in a reasonable timeline."

TSP tested the new site in December by giving some participants the opportunity to explore it when they logged out of their accounts, Wilder said. This prompted 6,000 comments, and the feedback was "overwhelmingly positive," she added. Participants did request some tools the TSP is still developing, including calculators and transaction records.

"It's an ongoing activity and as we go through the areas we'll find things we want to enhance that we hadn't thought of before," said Pamela-Jeanne Moran, deputy director of external affairs for the TSP. Moran is heading the team writing content for the new Web site.

Expanded features such as retirement calculators and life stages guides will be available in July, officials said.

Moran also is leading efforts to develop a DVD urging federal employees who have TSP accounts through the automatic agency contribution program to take a more proactive role in saving for retirement. Under the program, which began in June 2009, agencies automatically set up accounts for employees and contribute the equivalent of 1 percent of their salaries. But the DVD will encourage workers to boost their savings by setting aside part of their paycheck for retirement.

Moran said the DVD, which will supplement a late 2009 mailing, will emphasize "this is an important part of their retirement system and they need to start contributing so they don't miss out on the match" agencies give to employees who contribute a percentage of their salaries. The DVD will go to at least 300,000 federal employees, and eventually will be available on the Web site, according to Moran. The TSP will be able to continue using it as an educational tool for new federal employees.

The automatic contribution program has created a steady increase in participation numbers, Wilder said. Participation rose from 4.2 million employees in October 2009 to 4.3 million in December 2009.

The plan's balances have grown too, from $233.7 billion in October 2009 to $244.4 billion in December 2009. That figure matches the TSP's high point in 2008 before the crash of the financial markets. Wilder attributed the rebound to "performance as well as a continuation of relatively strong contributions."