Press Release

Transamerica Combines AI and Human Support to Simplify Retirement Plan Consolidation

Issued by Transamerica

Mar. 16, 2026

Imagine consolidating retirement accounts—something that historically could take weeks—now completed in just days. Transamerica announced today that it is making this possible with Pearl, The Transamerica Virtual Assistant℠. Pearl is a new, purpose-built digital experience that brings together AI, data and human support in a single, continuous workflow—designed to help retirement plan participants move savings from other retirement accounts into Transamerica with greater speed, simplicity and support.

“At Transamerica, we’re enhancing customer experiences and actively fulfilling our commitment to helping people save and invest for their future selves,” said Oriana Freidenberg, head of Customer Experience and Marketing at Transamerica. “Pearl makes it easier for our retirement plan participants to take action with clear guidance and timely support—while ensuring a Transamerica representative is readily available if a personal conversation is their preferred choice or the best next step.”

A more seamless consolidation journey—built around the participant

Consolidating retirement assets is an important financial decision, but the process has often been fragmented—paperwork, multiple steps, and uncertainty about what comes next. Pearl helps simplify that experience by creating a single, persistent participant space where AI guidance, relevant data and human support are unified—not separated into disconnected channels— keeping participants oriented and moving forward from start to finish.

Participants are guided through key action steps like account verification, document collection and secure transfer of funds. Pearl helps ensure participants know what to do at each stage—reducing confusion, limiting rework and supporting a smoother path to completion.

Pearl is designed with strong safeguards to help protect participant information, including encryption and robust security controls to support privacy and security throughout the experience. Together, these capabilities reflect a platform built to meet the regulatory expectations of the financial services industry.

What participants can expect with Pearl

With Pearl, participants can move through the account consolidation journey with:

• Clear, step-by-step guidance that reduces confusion and keeps momentum moving forward
• Fewer handoffs and less rework, so participants do not have to reexplain their situation
• Secure information and document sharing to support the rollover process
• Better visibility into next steps, helping participants feel more in control throughout the experience
• A unified omnichannel experience that maintains continuity across AI and human interactions

The result is a more coordinated, customer-centric experience that reduces friction and helps participants complete rollovers faster.

For this initiative, Transamerica teamed up with Zingly, an enterprise AI-powered customer experience platform. Zingly provides the secure, multimodal AI technology layer powering Pearl’s intelligent experience, supporting Transamerica’s continued focus on delivering innovative experiences for clients, plan sponsors and participants.

Human support when participants want it

While Pearl streamlines the end-to-end experience, participants are not limited to a digital-only path. At any time, they can connect with a Transamerica representative for one-on-one support—whether they want reassurance, have questions or simply prefer speaking with a person.

Human assistance is available during business hours. If a participant reaches out after hours, a representative responds the next business day to help ensure timely follow-up and continuity. Pearl remains available around the clock to answer questions, maintain progress and preserve context, ensuring participants can keep moving forward even outside business hours.

This combination of digital efficiency and human support helps participants move forward with confidence, especially during complex or time-sensitive moments.

Early momentum points to meaningful impact

With Pearl cutting the typical transition timeline by more than 50%, participants can complete the consolidation process significantly faster. By reducing friction, enabling intelligent orchestration and improving continuity, Pearl helps participants take greater control of their retirement planning and move their savings more efficiently.

Importantly, using Pearl does not incur any additional fees for participants. It is included as part of their plan experience, reinforcing transparency and supporting trust in the process.

About Transamerica Transamerica believes everyone deserves the opportunity to live their best life. It's what inspires us to be a champion for helping everyday Americans thrive. As a leading provider of life insurance, retirement, and investment solutions for more than 10 million Americans, we help people make the most of what's important to them.

Supporting our customers' financial futures with innovative products and services has been our mission for more than 120 years. In 2024, Transamerica fulfilled its promises to customers, paying more than $62 billion in insurance, retirement, and annuity claims and benefits, including return of customer-paid annuity premiums.

Transamerica is part of the Aegon group of companies. Aegon is an international financial services holding company.

For more information, visit www.transamerica.com.

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