| Communication & Education Services |
| Since Defined Contribution Plans have replaced Defined
Benefit Plans as the primary retirement vehicle in the country, the burden of retirement
planning has shifted from companies to employees. Though this shift might be
considered "employee empowerment", the vast majority of employees are
ill-prepared to accept this responsibility. It is the philosophy of Alpha & Omega, Inc. that it is no longer sufficient simply to "communicate" the Plan to employees, but instead the employees must be educated about retirement planning and investing as well as taught to use the Plan as a tool to achieve financial security. Our comprehensive program is designed to keep employees interested and involved in their own retirement planning with the following products and services:
Daily valuation refers to the processing of transactions related to defined contribution Plans as frequently as necessary (and as frequently as daily) to accommodate transfers, contributions, and withdrawals on a timely basis. The Plan's investments are priced each business day, so that participants can always have up-to-date account balance information. In combination with daily valuation, our Investor Direct voice response system or Internet access greatly reduces the responsibilities of your staff in administering the Plan. Participants may access account information or implement account changes through a 24-hour toll-free number or through the Internet. Documents on Demand is an industry first and incredibly exciting. A system run through First Mercantile Trust (FMT), Documents on Demand allows you to receive the appropriate forms as well as information about FMT investment advisors and their performance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The information is faxed to you within a matter of minutes after you request it by phone. Simply dial 1-800-753-4363 and follow the directions. You will be instructed to enter the code of the document you wish to receive and the fax number to which it should be sent. You may request up to 6 documents in one phone call, and there is no charge for this service. Information received or created on Documents on Demand is put onto the system by the next business day; however, please keep in mind that comments are not always received every quarter from every advisor. To find out when a document was updated last, request the Inventory of Documents; this will give you a list of every document and the date of the most current update. Available documents include:
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Alpha & Omega, Inc. Financial Management
Consultants |