By Katie Logisz
January 31, 2005

At the 73rd Annual Winter Meeting mayors met the new face of Nationwide Retirement Solutions, a Platinum Member of Conference of Mayors. Last month Linda Barber, Vice President for Strategic Relationships, was named to be the Conference's key contact upon the departure of Maggie Kwasny. Barber has been with Nationwide for 15 years, after leaving public accounting. She worked in the 401(k) and banking divisions, before joining NRS two years ago. In introducing Barber to the audience, Conference of Mayors President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic noted that though the Conference was saddened by Kwasny's departure, he is confident that the new relationship with Barber will continue to grow and develop the important partnership that the Conference and Nationwide have enjoyed for 26 years.

Barber addressed the audience regarding Nationwide's continued commitment to education. At the 2004 Winter Meeting, Nationwide announced its initiative to bring financial principles to school-aged children. This was done by utilizing a classic fairy tale to convey important lessons. Mayors across the country have joined in reading The Three Little Pigs: A Financial Fairy Tale to children in their cities. Barber shared photographs of Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz and Sugar Land (TX) Mayor David Wallace sharing this story with children in their respective communities.

According to Barber, "Spending, Stingy, and Sharing Pigs were not only a hit with the children, but they had quite an impact on the adults." Because so many mayors embraced this story and shared it, the Conference of Mayors and Nationwide are the recipients of an Eddy Award. This award is sponsored by Pensions and Investments and its sister-publication, Workforce Management. The award recognizes, "high quality and investment education techniques that use unique concepts and styles to deliver their investment education message." The award will be presented on February 25 at Pensions & Investments' 2005 Defined Contribution/401(k) conference in Miami. According to Barber, this award signifies the value of the partnership between the Conference and Nationwide and "is a wonderful recognition of the impact that we can have when we work together."

NRs's day to day business is working with city employees and encouraging them to take part in their deferred compensation programs. One-on-one meetings and group workshops are conducted by Nationwide's representatives in cities across the country to educate plan participants. Last year, NRS sought to discover what kind of impact its education initiatives for city employees were making. Nationwide measured participation rates, deferral amounts, and how plan participants were accessing asset allocation. This research uncovered three important trends. Deferral rates, the amount that participants put into plans, went up. Participation in deferred compensation programs increased. The third trend was that plan participants are taking more advantage of the array of investment options within their plans. Participants are asset allocating and diversifying their risk. According to Barber, these are three trends that must continue to be encouraged.

Barber concluded by thanking the mayors for joining with the Conference and NRS in educating city employees and their children on the importance of saving for the future. For more information on the USCM/NRS deferred compensation program, contact Linda Barber at 614-854-8895 or email barberl@nationwide.com. You may also contact Katie Logisz at the Conference of Mayors at 202-861-6739 or klogisz@usmayors.org or Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at 301-460-5251 or kweyland@usmayors.org.