General financial education, in addition to education specific to 401(k) plans, can encourage employees to save more for retirement. Topics like budgeting, debt management and reduction, and finding ways to save on household purchases may allow employees to feel more confidence in contributing more of their income to the plan. In turn, that can lead to improved retirement readiness. (more…)
The upside of using auto-enrollment (and auto-escalation) features in a 401(k) plan are considerable. Participants in plans that use auto-enrollment seldom opt out, even when they are enrolled at 6% to 10% of pay. This has resulted in many new participants saving for their futures. Recently, though, a study was done that suggests people who are automatically enrolled in their plan may take on more debt than they would have otherwise.
Trying to find people who no longer work for you, or moved and didn’t provide a forwarding address can be a daunting task.The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) may be able to help. Although the PBGC is primarily about safeguarding DB plan benefits, they said in December 2017 that they will now grant access to their missing-participant database to defined contribution plans terminating in 2018 or later, and to affected participants.
Among retirement industry trends to watch in 2018, along with how to save money in a 401(k) plan and other retirement accounts, is how to spend those savings.
A retirement industry think-tank expects a growing number of plan sponsors and industry stakeholders to evaluate retirement income solutions and de-accumulation strategies for DC plans. The expectation is that, with the growing impact on the workforce of an aging population, increased emphasis will be placed on the distribution of plan assets.
It isn’t surprising that average contributions are generally lower for younger 401(k) plan participants. Not only is retirement much farther down the road for them than it is for their Generation X and baby boomer colleagues, many of them struggle with more debt and less income. On average, they contribute about 5.3% of pay to their retirement plans, compared to 6.6% for Gen Xers and 8.6% for baby boomers. (more…)
Among retirement industry trends to watch in 2018, along with how to save money in a 401(k) plan and other retirement accounts, is how to spend those savings.
A retirement industry think-tank expects a growing number of plan sponsors and industry stakeholders to evaluate retirement income solutions and de-accumulation strategies for DC plans.
That has been the subject of recent research by the Pew Charitable Trusts. They looked at employer and employee perspectives on saving, and made some interesting findings. For example, 2/3 of employees at small to mid-sized companies have access to a retirement plan at work, and 68% participate. That translates to 45% of workers at small to mid-sized businesses participating in a 401(k) or similar plan — and 55% not participating.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about what Medicare will and won’t pay for retirees’ health care. Your 401(k) plan is a great tool for employees to use to save for these expenses, and the 401(k) meetings are a good time to discuss this topic.
