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With Employees in the Mood to Save, Employers Ready to Help

Employees are in the mood to save more for their retirement, and an increasing number of employers are tapping in to that sentiment, say recent reports.

More than half of employees recently told the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute that saving more is their top financial priority, and a majority of them say saving for retirement is one of the biggest reasons for that. And employers appear to be reading the tea leaves, according to Willis Towers Watson, which reports that it found in its own recent study that in increasing number of employers are enhancing their DC plans to help employees to save and improve their long-term financial security.

According to the Willis Towers Watson study, a strong majority of employers — 73% — now have automatic enrollment. The increasing percentages of employers offering enhancements and new options include the following, the study found:

 Year       % Adding
      Roth Features
           % Offering TDFs
            as Predominant
            Default Option
            % of Employers With
            Automatic Enrollment
 2009            --                      64                          52
 2012            46                       --                          --
 2014            54                      86                          68
 2018            70                       93                          73

 

Other steps they report employers taking include:

  • 80% offer health savings accounts, and 12% plan to at least consider offering them beginning in 2019;

  • 78% expect to increase employee education about retirement planning, and 64% of those plan to include guidance on how to draw down funds during retirement as part of those programs;

  • 41% charge a fixed-dollar amount per participant for recordkeeping fees, a nine percentage-point increase since 2014; and

  • 25% have increased their contributions to retirement plans since 2013.

And employers’ increasing adoption of means to enhance employees’ ability to save takes on added importance given another of LIMRA’s findings: Just under one-third of workers with non-mortgage debt reported that they are saving for retirement outside an employer-provided plan, and just 23% of Millennials are doing so. That takes on added significance given LIMRA’s additional finding that 71% of American workers have some kind of non-mortgage debt.