Thrift Savings Plan to launch mobile app next year
By
Natalie Alms
The move is part of a $3.3 billion contract to consolidate multiple service contracts at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.
A mobile app for the Thrift Savings Plan is scheduled to go live in mid-2022, officials said during an Oct. 26 meeting.
The app is part of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's Converge Program, meant to modernize the TSP's retirement services via the agency's consolidated recordkeeping contract.
The program is on track for go-live in mid-2022, said Tee Ramos, FRTIB's director of participant services.
The FRTIB tapped Accenture Federal Services for the contract in Nov. 2020, consolidating what used to be several FRTIB contracts for recordkeeping, contact centers, forms processing and special legal processing services.
The debut of the program for users will include the app, which will give participants easy access to account functionality, said Tanner Nohe, program manager at FRTIB.
"It'll enable retirement services on-the-go, and basically just creates a new channel for us to have two-way communication with our participants," he said.
During the meeting, he pointed to consumer demand for the product.
Sixty-two percent of TSP participants said that they'd use a mobile app to access their accounts in the agency's 2020 participant satisfaction survey. Fifty-seven percent of those younger than 40 and 24% over 40, specifically, marked that they wanted to interact with TSPs using mobile applications.
TSP participants will also have other new tools at their disposal, including a virtual assistant and virtual chat, as part of the Converge program.
The virtual assistant will be available on the TSP website 24/7 to answer questions and give interactive assistance using artificial intelligence technology. There will also be a virtual chat option with a live agent that can hand off participants to a public service representative.
"These are all the packages of the enhanced digital engagement that we're trying to establish with our participants," Nohe said.
FRTIB will also be debuting a mutual fund window for TSP participants to search mutual funds they might want to invest in.
Finally, the Converge project also entails enhanced security measures like new multifactor authentication practices. These include the use of biometrics like fingerprints and facial recognition. TSP users will be able to use biometrics markers in their mobile device to access their account.