NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Mestek, Inc., HVAC manufacturing and engineering leader and Prudential Retirement client, today announced that it will offer the Student Loan Genius benefit to help employees and their families with student loan debt repayment. The company is the first of Prudential’s defined contribution recordkeeping clients to publicly announce that it will offer a student loan benefit through the Prudential and Student Loan Genius partnership. Prudential Retirement is a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU).
This fall Mestek will roll out Genius Advisor™ by Student Loan Genius, which helps employees find and select the best of 70-plus student loan repayment scenarios in as few as seven minutes.
“Student loan benefits are becoming increasingly popular among employers who view employee financial wellness as a top priority,” said Snezana Zlatar, senior vice president and head of Product for Prudential Retirement’s Full Service Solutions business. “Student loan debt is one of the biggest hurdles to saving for long-term priorities, including retirement. Helping manage the burden means creating more opportunity for employees to prepare for a solid financial future.”
America’s student debt, which was once a low-cost loan paid off in the first few years of a career, now hovers around $1.3 trillion and creates both short- and long-term financial challenges for individuals and families. In fact, 73 percent of student loan borrowers say they have postponed saving for retirement or any other investments because of student debt, according to an American Student Assistance survey.
“As we grow, we’re hiring more recent college graduates and seeing that many of them are burdened by student loan debt.” said Joanne Berwald, vice president of human resources for Mestek. “We wanted to offer our employees a benefit that could help remove that worrisome distraction and offer real help.”
Mestek Inc., headquartered in Westfield, Mass., is a family of manufacturers of HVAC equipment and automated manufacturing machinery with years of experience and a history of innovation. The company, a Prudential recordkeeping client since 2007, has two defined contribution plans totaling $115 million in assets under management.
“Mestek and its employees are a perfect example of why our Prudential Retirement partnership is so important,” said Tony Aguilar, CEO of Student Loan Genius. “Through our work we’re able to help thousands lower their student loan payments and free up money for long-term savings with just a few clicks.”
In addition to Genius Advisor, Student Loan Genius also offers two additional employee benefits:
- Genius Match: which helps companies provide matching student loan payments to employees, and
- Genius Save: which uses an employee’s student loan payments to trigger contributions into defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k), 403(b)).
Prudential Retirement has offered all of the Student Loan Genius benefit options to its recordkeeping clients since March 2016.
About Prudential Retirement
Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Services include defined contribution, defined benefit and non-qualified deferred compensation recordkeeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee education and communications, and trustee services, as well as a variety of products and strategies, including institutional investment and income products, pension risk transfer solutions and structured settlement services. With more than 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of 4.2 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $386.7 billion in retirement account values as of September 30, 2016.
About Prudential Financial, Inc.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/.
About Student Loan Genius
Student Loan Genius helps today’s most competitive companies and employees pursue real financial wellness by tackling one of their biggest life hurdles, student loans. Inspired by their own personal student loan debt experiences, the team invented America’s first and complete student loan benefit that helps employees reduce debt and create real long-term financial wellness. Learn more at studentloangenius.com.
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