Over the summer, we launched authenticated live chat on our Investor CenterTM and Employee Online websites.

This new feature allows your holders and participants to receive answers to portfolio-specific questions. Previously, the live chat function only provided support for logging and registering an account and offered only general information since users were not logged into their accounts. If there were questions related to their accounts, they were instructed to contact us via phone.

Your shareholders and plan participants will enjoy a secure chat environment that is only accessible once they have logged into the website – and they will never be asked to provide any personally identifiable information, such as Social Security number.

With authenticated chat, our live chat representatives can offer additional support to your investors once they have logged into their accounts. In addition to account-specific support, this new chat feature offers investors greater flexibility in their communications with us and expands the hours they can reach a service representative for portfolio questions. In addition, we expect the authenticated live chat will ultimately reduce the amount of inbound calls, reducing expenses for many clients.​