Hardship Withdrawal
Hardship Withdrawal is, as the name suggests, is a mechanism where employees can make withdrawal from their retirement account for qualifying events.
Did you say paper form?
Hardship withdrawal process currently only exists in paper format and paper checks. This experience was created in response to IRS guideline changes where a self-certified hardship requests will be allowed. This meant an easier way would be required for employees to access their available funds. On the other hand, this also meant a complex and strenuous data entry would be required (see table on right for minimum required data).
One linear flow with multiple touch points
Due to the severity of request, legal disclaimers and agreements are heavily placed throughout the flow. Also detailed descriptions of hardship events are required to be recorded. This translated to multiple stop points within the main wizard flow. I have utilized real time validation along with a flexible list that can grow with user entry. The main intent was to make the experience as contextual as possible by showing only the information that the user is required to focus on.
Rules and regulations
Governmental regulations varied from state to state when it comes to taxes and fees. On top of the variety of rules, users also had a chance to request withholding or not. The interface had to accommodate all potential variables. Additionally, there was a development limitation where a trigger was required to do all the calculation. Above screens shows some of examples of exploration undertaken. Regardless of the complexity, one thing that I have pushed hard was to making sure to display actual amount that the users would be receiving, which is the single most critical information that would have a real impact on the users in hardship situations.
