Ascensus is committed to providing as much continuity as possible in your service model and maintaining the same high level of responsiveness and support you expect.

In line with our unique, phased approach to unification, we expect that the service model—like all aspects of our business—will continue to evolve over time. However, our primary goal is to continue to deliver the highest quality service to you and your participants, so any change that may take place in the future will be determined with your needs in mind and communicated in advance.

While the unified organization will be branded Ascensus, you will continue to see Newport in some parts of your experience following migration. For example, your service agreements will remain with Newport for now, so you will continue to see certain billing items including—but not limited to—invoices and fee disclosures that reference Newport.  

Yes. Your login credentials will remain the same and your current web experience will continue to serve as the digital framework moving forward, with ongoing enhancements over time. Once your plan has migrated, the website address will change from newportgroup.com to a different URL, but again, your login credentials will still work. We will let you know the new website address as your plan’s migration date approaches.

Yes. As we bring forward the best of each organization, some reports will remain the same, others will be enhanced, and new options will be added including a new, customizable, on-demand Plan Health Report. 

• Your Quarterly Valuation reporting will be generated as multiple reports instead of one package, with some posted to the plan dashboard reporting section and others through the Plan Administration reporting section. This Reporting Overview Guide makes it easy to find the reports you need.
• HRIS reporting schedules will be maintained. Other scheduled reports will need to be re-established.
• Ad-hoc reporting functionality is being sunset. Moving forward, we will continue to review reporting needs and move towards a more unified reporting experience.

Yes. Your financial advisor has been notified that your retirement plan will be migrated in November and we will continue to keep them—and you— informed along the way. We fully understand the value of working with the financial advisor of your choice on all aspects of your company’s retirement plan, and we are committed to keeping an open line of communication with both you and your financial advisor.

Ascensus will continue to calculate and report model portfolio performance post migration.  Note that the model performance data on statements and the website will be available from the month of the migration (i.e., 'Inception Date' of 11/1/2024). This date serves as the starting point for performance records, and data before this date cannot be retrieved.  We understand the importance of having access to comprehensive performance data, but historical allocation and fund changes to the model are not able to be carried over to the new platform. All model portfolio performance data will reflect performance from the month of migration onward.

There will be no significant change to your participants’ managed account experience, but the following items should be noted:

• Fees will be assessed quarterly instead of monthly and will be based on average daily account balance versus end-of-month. Please look for a service agreement amendment regarding this fee methodology change.
• The My Forecast tool will now be available for participants subscribed to managed accounts. 
• To help ensure account security, participants with linked outside accounts will be prompted to re-establish these links after migration.
• To access managed accounts, participants will click through a single sign-on to the managed account.

If your plan currently requires spousal consent for a subset of participants or for a specific money source, after migration, the plan sponsor will be required to approve all distributions online.

If applicable due to plan provision, married participants will be required to have spousal consent on file. A prompt will appear during the request to alert the participant spousal consent is required if a form is not already on file.

Reminder that approvals should be held for seven days prior to finalization of spousal consent.

If you’re not sure if spousal consent applies to your plan, reach out to your client service team.

When you first joined the plan, you had the option to either place the revenue sharing funds (generated by 12b-1, shareholder servicing, and other fees) in a Revenue Holding Account to pay Newport fees and other plan expenses, or to have the funds credited to the accounts of plan participants.

Following the migration date, the revenue sharing funds will be held in an Administrative Fee Credit Account (AFCA) and used as previously elected by you. If the amounts credited to the AFCA exceed the fees and expenses submitted for payment, the excess may be allocated to participant accounts as directed by you.

Participants have access to the participant migration website which includes helpful information, timeline milestones, and FAQs. Although the URL for the employee retirement plan website will change, the website functionality will essentially be the same. We are committed to making it easy for you to share what’s happening with your employees and answer any questions they may have. We'll also send an email to participants for whom we have email addresses on file in September, and continue to communicate with them via email as we get closer to migration.

Yes, participants will continue to access their accounts the same way they do today. Although the employee website URL will be updated at a later date, their existing login credentials will still work.

Available after migration, the READYSAVE™ mobile app offers a simple, streamlined, and supportive experience that is driven by data and backed by behavioral science to help participants make more informed decisions throughout their journey to retirement readiness. The app also has a Spanish language option. Participants will receive more information about downloading and using the app as soon as migration is complete. 

In addition to the READYSAVE^TM mobile app, participants will find Spanish and alternative language capabilities: 

• On the employee website – the dashboard will still be available in Spanish; transactional pages will not.   

• Through the call center – Spanish-speaking representatives and additional licensed and bonded language translation services are available. 
• On forms – all standard distribution forms are available in Spanish and posted to all plan websites. 

Yes. Data from January 1, 2021, forward will be securely carried over to the Ascensus recordkeeping platform. Statements from prior periods will continue to be available on the employee website.  

When requests can be made online, it is recommended participants leverage this web-based functionality for streamlined processing and expedited delivery options.   

Participants can also request distributions via a suite of Ascensus transaction forms available on the plan website. Distribution forms are classified by plan type and triggering event, and there is a section to include rollover instructions for Roth funds. Newport forms will be accepted for 60 days post-migration. 

The information below only applies to full service plans. If you use a third-party administrator, please contact them for any 2024 RMD updates.

To help ensure a smooth transition, RMDs will be processed earlier than usual for the 2024 calendar year. For participants who currently receive a single annual RMD in December, distributions will be processed on or about October 10, 2024. All future payments will occur in December.
For participants currently receiving installment payments (i.e., monthly, quarterly, or sometime other than in December), distributions will continue as-is. In December, we will review eligible participants' year-to-date distributions to determine whether their 2024 RMD has been met. If it has not, a fail-safe distribution will be processed in December.

As a result of SECURE 2.0 legislation, hardship distribution requests can be self-certified. On the Ascensus platform, participants will be able to self-certify via form and online. Participants may self-certify that their financial need qualifies as a hardship under the plan, and they will retain the supporting documentation to substantiate the reason for the hardship.

After migration, all plan sponsors whose plans offer loans and their participants will be able to request a loan directly online. Loans initiated online will be displayed under pending transactions on the plan website for your review and/or approval. If participants prefer to request a loan with a form, they can model the loan online and print the form for plan sponsor approval. This approach improves accuracy and helps ensure smooth processing. If a participant does not have online access to their retirement account, they can reach out to Participant Services for assistance.

Post-migration, fees will no longer be pulled directly from SDBAs and the ability to initiate distributions directly from SDBAs will no longer be available. It will be the participant’s responsibility to have enough invested in the plan’s core funds to cover SDBA fees and any distributions. Participants will see two funds in the plan lineup for their SDBA: The “cash” fund is used for investment elections as well as transfers to and from the core funds. The “invest” fund shows the market value of all securities within the brokerage account. New contributions and/or rebalances that are initiated or scheduled by the participant will post directly into SDBA “cash.”

After migration, terminated participants may change their address by calling the Participant Service Center. Participants may also change their address at the time of a distribution by submitting the snap-on Contact Change form with the Separation from Service distribution form.  Note: There is a 14-day hold on distributions that are submitted with address changes.  

At the time of migration, all participants for all plans will be able to designate beneficiaries using the Online Beneficiary Designation function on the employee website. As beneficiary data may be outdated, Ascensus is taking this opportunity to help participants ensure their information is accurate and up to date. Ascensus has a robust online beneficiary user experience that captures some additional beneficiary election information. Participants will be prompted to review and update their online beneficiary elections after migration.

After migration, participants should re-establish their automatic rebalance elections (if applicable). Otherwise, the auto-rebalance will not continue post-migration. Participants with an email address on file will be reminded of any needed action, if applicable.

Yes, when your plan moves to Ascensus, you’ll have Financial Wellness Essentials, an award-winning financial wellness program from Financial Finesse, built into your retirement plan. Employees can look forward to:

• Virtual financial coaching backed by research and Certified Financial Planner (CFP^®) expertise
• A personalized action plan and helpful tools to stay on track
• Educational resources covering a wide range of financial topics and diverse perspectives

Your plan currently has the option for participants to set up an automatic deferral (savings rate) increase at a preset frequency. The new platform also has the option for automatic increases which are standardized, on the first day of each calendar year, to an annual increase of 1%, with a maximum rate of 10%.

If participants want to continue using an auto-increase election, they will need to set up an automatic deferral with the standardized option on the employee website after the plan goes live the week of November 18. Participants with an email address on file will be reminded of any needed action, if applicable.

After migration, participants should re-establish their automatic rebalance elections (if applicable). Otherwise, the auto-rebalance will not continue after migration. Participants with an email address on file will be reminded of any needed action, if applicable.

When requests can be made online, it is recommended participants leverage this web-based functionality for streamlined processing and expedited delivery options.

Distribution forms are classified by plan type and triggering event, and there is a section to include rollover instructions for Roth funds.

Participants can request distributions and other transactions via a suite of Ascensus transaction forms available on the employee website. Each form indicates the triggering event for the distribution. Newport forms will be accepted for 60 days after migration.