Overview

With over 20 years of experience designing online financial planning and retirement tools for some of the world’s largest 401(k) providers, Cantina’s Financial Services team is well-versed in crafting digital experiences with varying degrees of sophistication in user interaction, data visualization, and action-based outcomes. Typically, the more time required of the user by an online tool, the more robust the analysis and output needs to be in order to keep that user engaged. As Charles Schwab’s tool is part of an email campaign to prospects, the challenge was to offer the prospect just enough value and guidance to justify their time investment and contact information.

While most investors know they need to save more for retirement, a proper understanding of the key factors influencing their future retirement income can help them to make better decisions and plan more effectively.

An Interactive and Personalized Digital Tool to Attract New Client Prospects

During the initial phase of the project, Cantina recommended that the digital experience focus on a few key measures to pique interest in a limited time window. Those measures were savings rate, retirement age, and retirement income goal. While most investors know they need to save more, a proper understanding of the key factors influencing their retirement income can help them to make better decisions and plan more effectively for the future. For example, a higher savings rate might not be a viable option for many folks, but pushing retirement out a bit or tweaking target retirement income might get them to their ultimate goal. Helping investors to understand the role of each of these factors and its impact can go a long way towards helping them to forecast and fund their retirement.

In lockstep with this approach, Cantina worked with Charles Schwab’s internal agency to design an interface that would attract prospects and draw their attention to key inputs and outputs. Because many users are on mobile phones, the tool also needed to be fully responsive across all devices and screens.

Acquiring New Clients with an Enriching Experience

Cognizant that prospects might be skeptical or time-constrained, the colorful design of the interactive tool focused on the key factors that contribute to a successful and well-funded retirement. This was designed to increase engagement and drive new client acquisition for Charles Schwab. It’s one example of a number of projects that Cantina and Charles Schwab are working on together to educate and motivate people to better prepare for retirement.