Tag: automatic enrollment

A bipartisan pair of Senators introduced another retirement-focused piece of lame duck legislation, including more than 50 provisions aimed at increasing savings in DC plans and IRAs.

While automatic enrollment gets participants into plans, a sizable segment are starting their average contributions at a minimum 3.3% rate and failing to take any additional action to increase that, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

More plan sponsors are making Roth contributions available, automatic enrollment default deferral percentages are increasing, and company match formulas are becoming more generous.

Janus Henderson research suggests the vast majority of auto-enrollment programs fund only pre-tax accounts; this is despite the fact that for younger, lower-income employees, funding a Roth account may be a more appropriate long-term option.

Willis Towers Watson offers nine actions for DC plan advisers to help their clients mitigate risks in 2019.

In addition, a person invested in a stable value fund versus someone invested in a target-date fund could end up with a balance as much as 59% lower, BlackRock says.

Workers under age 35 are realizing they need to start saving now, according to Ascensus.

Ten percent more employers than in 2016 that offer retirement programs are measuring the financial readiness of employees to retire, a survey found.

Monthly expenses are their second concern, The Standard found in a survey.

However, only 33% are confident about their retirement readiness.

Their use of an adviser acting as a plan fiduciary has increased by 40% in the past four years, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America.

Sixty-one percent of all participants surveyed by J.P. Morgan agreed with the statement, “If I could push an ‘easy’ button for retirement and completely hand over my retirement planning and investing to a financial professional, I would.”

If combined with the Automatic Retirement Plan Act of 2017, the retirement savings shortfall would be reduced by $932 billion, or 22.6%, according to EBRI.

In addition, a mere 18% of workers are very confident they will be able to retire with a comfortable lifestyle.

Fidelity finds that since 2008, the average savings rate among employees automatically enrolled has risen from 4% to 6.7%, and 63% of automatically enrolled participants in the past 10 years have increased their savings rate.

Fifty-two percent think they will be able to retire at their ideal retirement age, and 52% say they either somewhat or strongly agree that their savings will last throughout their lifetime.

To help employees achieve their savings goals, 82% of sponsors are making changes to plan design, and 83% are updating their investment menus.

A TIAA study finds the feature's benefit are continuously offset by pre-retirement withdrawals and plan loans. 

One measure is to encourage MEPs by eliminating the “nexus” requirement.