More Participants Increase Savings, Seek Advice
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Retirement & Benefit Plan Services' quarterly report on plan and participant activities within its proprietary 401(k) business found 60% of participants started or increased savings.
Conversely, 40% of participants stopped or decreased saving.
An executive summary of the DC Scorecard said 64% of plan participants who changed their savings rate in Q3 chose to increase savings (compared to 63% in Q2, and 53% in Q1). The number of participants who stopped contributing to their plans in Q3 was 46% lower than in Q1 (Q2 was 34% lower than in Q1), and the number of participants who decreased their contribution in Q3 was 44% lower than in Q1 (Q2 was 39% lower than in Q1).
The data also show a significant year-over-year climb in plan participant use of the firm’s Advice Access service. Plans that use the Advice Access service saw a 74% increase in participants accessing advice.
Plan sponsors are taking steps as well. The scorecard indicated a 12% increase in the adoption of automatic enrollment, and a 20% increase in the adoption of automatic increase. The data also show a 20% increase in plan usage of Advice Access.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Retirement & Benefit Plan Services’ business includes more than 1,500 plan sponsors and more than 1.5 million actively contributing plan participants.
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