Fidelity partnership aims to help retiring employees transition to private health coverage

By Globe Staff

Fidelity Investments, the Boston-based financial-services company, and Extend Health, a Towers Watson company, today announced a strategic agreement to enhance Fidelity’s retirement guidance capabilities to include retiree health care.

According to a press release from Fidelity and Extend Health, this agreement will “simplify the transition process for millions of retiring Americans as they shift from employer-sponsored medical coverage to the individual Medicare market for health insurance.”

Extend Health is a large private Medicare exchange.

“With health care being one of the most underestimated costs in retirement and Medicare not covering all medical expenses, an increasing number of employers are asking for help in transitioning their employees into retirement,” Christi Rager Wise, a Fidelity senior vice president, said in a statement. “Our agreement with Extend Health will expand the financial guidance Fidelity provides employees transitioning into retirement while also helping them tackle one of the biggest risks to financial security in retirement, the cost of health care.”