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Technology innovations in the employee benefits industryare emerging daily as companies create or enhancetools to help HR, benefits advisors, retirement advisors, and otherpractitioners do their jobs. "Personalization" is a key term we'reseeing more frequently in regards to employee benefits andretirement products, and, more recently,"hyper-personalization," as companies seek to tailor services totheir employees' and clients' individual needs. Here's a samplingof what crossed our desk recently:

RightCapital introduced RightPay, a web-based servicethat enables financial advisors to collect financial planning feesfrom clients via credit card. Available to RightCapitalsubscribers, the add-on service allows advisors to track and managecompleted and outstanding payments for all of their clients.

Prudential is partnering with nationalnonprofit GreenPath Financial Wellness to introduce debtmanagement advice and tools to its growing suite of workplacefinancial wellness solutions.GreenPath offers a free session with acertified financial counselor to establish goals and explore debtrepayment options. For a fee, employees or members who participatecan also choose to enroll in a formal debt management plan designedto pay off outstanding balances in five years or less.

John Hancock announced two new tools available at JohnHancock Retirement's participant site. The first helps participantscreate an emergency savings account and track progresstoward the savings goal, with the ability to withdraw funds at anytime with no fees. The second one, The Education Planning Center,lets participants estimate the costs of higher education and definefunding gaps in current savings strategies. It includes resourcesto help with college selection, scholarships and financial aid,navigation of the college application process and more.

Glint announced the launch of Glint 360s. Its360-degree feedback aims to give people a holistic view of theirstrengths and opportunities based on input from their managers,peers, collaborators, direct reports, and theindividual's self-assessment. Built to accompanyGlint Engage, it includes interactive reporting, and automates keyprocesses.

DailyPayannounced SAVE 3.0 to expand no-cost ways employees can allocateearned income to their own savings account before their scheduledpayday. SAVE 3.0 is free to all employees who have access toDailyPay. Employees can use it in three ways: With AutoSAVE, employees can build a savings safety net withregularly scheduled savings; DirectSAVE lets  employeessave different amounts each pay period; RoundupSAVE letsemployees allocate a certain amount of their earnings tosavings when they request a pay transfer prior to payday.

BlueShield of California and Accolade will be offering national, self-fundedemployers headquartered in California a personalized memberengagement experience. An integral component of this experience ishealth assistants and clinicians that work directly withmembers to assess their health needs, answer benefits questions,and assist members before, during and after they receive medicalcare. It is available for a January 2021 plan effective date.

BetterUpannounced Identify AI and Coaching Clouds. Identify AI is aproprietary AI that aims to deliver hyper-personalizeddevelopment recipes based on organizational priorities andindividual preferences. It diagnoses the needs of an organization'semployee population and helps determine the right people to investin, the appropriate amount and type of coachingneeded, and identifies coaching opportunities in realtime. Coaching Clouds is made up of three different coachingproducts – field cloud, professional cloud, and executive cloud,designed for the different needs of employees at various levels ofan organization.

BestExResearch Group announced the launch of its global tradingsolution. The end-to-end solution includes a TCA system that isdesigned to measure and continuously reduce transaction costs, asimulation platform for analysis of algorithm behavior, a webdashboard for transparency and control over algorithm behavior, andaccess to in-house consultants, in a broker-neutral model. Abel Noser LLC willmake BestEx Research execution algorithms available to more than500 global fund managers.

ArmadaCareintroduced Ultimate Health for HSAs and Plena Health for HSAs.These are the HSA-compatible versions of its Ultimate Health andPlena Health. These supplemental hospital indemnity insuranceproducts are designed to mirror coverage offered in Ultimate Healthand Plena Health, including inpatient care, outpatient surgery andservices, Rx, wellness treatments, dental / vision coverage,executive physicals and more.

Alight Solutions launched a new"hyper-personalization" tool. It sends targeted alerts and guidanceto employees via multi-channel messages that continuously adaptbased on employee actions (or inactions). It focuses on providinginformation and calls to action for people across three key areas:health (enrollment guidance, provider searches, cost comparisons,etc.); wealth (retirement savings, budgeting, etc.) and career(pay, performance, time off, etc.).

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