John Hancock Adds Alexa Skills to Retirement Plan Participant Experience for Frequently Asked Questions

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (“John Hancock“) is enhancing its participant experience by providing its open architecture retirement plan participants access to personalized information including frequently-asked account queries through their Alexa-enabled devices.

Now, by saying, “Alexa, open John Hancock,” and providing a secure and personalized voice code, participants can hear their account and loan balances, fund allocations, personal rates of return, contact information for the plan, and more. Participants whose Alexa-enabled devices have a built-in display capability, such as the Echo Show, will also see the information displayed on screen.

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“Our goal is to make it easier for people in our plans to save more for retirement, and to do that we want to provide the personal information they need in the ways they want to receive it,” said Patrick Murphy, president and CEO of John Hancock Retirement Plan Services. “With the growth in voice-enabled technology, we’re pleased to offer services which provide quick, secure access to important account information.”

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Account security and data protection is a serious and important concern to John Hancock and the company incorporates a variety of safety measures to address potential issues into its skills for Alexa. For example, a participant’s identity will be verified through multi-factor authentication during the account linking process. In addition, participants will be required to set up a secure voice code when first enabling the skill in the Alexa app, and recite it correctly before getting access to any account information. No participant account information is recorded or maintained on their Alexa-enabled device or in the hardware servers storing their Amazon account.

“Technology evolves so quickly and whether or not Alexa becomes the method of choice for participants to securely obtain account information, it is a valuable tool for learning what helps our customers take action when it comes to their retirements,” said Mr. Murphy.

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