Jennifer DeLong
25 Years at AB|31 Years of Experience
Jennifer DeLong is a Senior Vice President, Managing Director and Head of Defined Contribution, responsible for leading AB’s defined contribution business in North America. She oversees product management and development, marketing, participant communications, and client services for the firm’s institutional custom target-date and lifetime income solution clients. Additionally, DeLong is responsible for firm’s Collective Investment Trust business and is President of the AllianceBernstein Trust Company. Since joining AB in 1999, she has held various senior client relationship management, product management and marketing roles, all primarily focused on defined contribution, 529 college savings plans and sub-advisory insurance services for both institutional and retail clients. Before joining the firm, DeLong worked in various sales, marketing and client relationship management roles for both small and mega-sized defined contribution plans. She holds a BS in business management with a minor in international business from The College of New Jersey, as well as FINRA Series 6 and 63 licenses. Location: New York
Published Work
Plan sponsors can improve participant engagement with relevant, timely topics and ideas.
Plan participant perspectives can differ, and so should how sponsors connect with them.
Retirement income is the top goal among defined contribution (DC) plan participants. But according to our most recent survey, many participants struggle to find the best way to tap into those savings when the time comes. How can plan sponsors help close the gap?
With COVID-19 challenges lingering and defined contribution (DC) plan participant confidence consistently low, it's time for more plan sponsors to offer financial wellness programs-with topics well beyond retirement.
DC plan participants who secure guaranteed retirement income over time—much like dollar cost averaging—rather than all at once at retirement tend to be better insulated from the impact of market and interest-rate volatility on income.
Planning for retirement has historically been focused on saving as much as possible. But if the actual target is to secure income for life, we think giving participants a preview of the future income they're building can encourage even better savings habits now.
As more plan participants worry about retirement income security, demand for guaranteed income solutions is growing-and plan sponsors are pondering the options. While there are many ways to measure the benefits, we believe that some approaches-like in-plan and default options-have distinct advantages.
For any lifetime income solution to be effective within a DC plan, it will have to satisfy two major participant concerns: certainty of that retirement income and control over those hard-earned plan assets. Not all lifetime income solutions are able to provide those must-have ingredients.