As retirement plan regulations shift and markets flux, automation holds the key to confident, agile communications and compliance. Personalization, deliverability, and convenience combine to boost participation and contributions. Employee engagement becomes more streamlined and accurate.
The result: Going digital enables plan advisors to stand out by delivering three key values for plan sponsors and employees.
Value 1: An Enrollment Boost
The generic, paper-based enrollment kits stocked on shelves each quarter yield a usage rate as low as 19%, according to proprietary Broadridge data, perpetuating lackluster results and waste. Digital communications make it possible to be more personalized, persistent, and productive in enrollment efforts.
How does digital automation make a difference?
• Employees can be engaged across preferred channels.
• Content can be tailored to align with employee life stages, roles and goals.
• Triggered nudges and follow-up communications can reflect actions taken.
• If one channel isn’t eliciting a response, it’s easy to pivot to another.
The switch to digital communications empowers recordkeepers to chart and automate communications from enrollment across the participant lifecycle journey.
And—participants expect it. From shopping and social channels to newsfeeds and more, personalization pervades consumer experiences. Plan participants expect nothing less from their workplace retirement communications. They are more likely to remain enrolled and to contribute more when these expectations are met. In fact, individuals who engage with their retirement plan digitally online save 52% more than those who do not.
Value 2: Increased participation
66% of workers believe they are nowhere close to achieving financial wellness or even being literate about what financial wellness should be, according to a recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Employees admit, when it comes to retirement planning, they don’t know what they don’t know. They feel under-informed and overwhelmed—and this is reflected in participation rates.
Opening a digital dialogue with employees makes it possible to bring more education into the mix. Multiple, user-friendly retirement communications can increase financial literacy and employees’ longer-term view. Providing this channel helps employees become more familiar with the financial benefits of saving early, escalating contributions, and employer matches.
Personalization helps present these benefits within the context of what matters to individual employees. Communications can be tailored to life stage, known behaviors, and more. All of this has the power to make plan participation more relatable, understandable, and attractive. It enriches engagement and powers up deferral rates.
Value 3: Greater Peace of Mind
Seventy-one percent of plan sponsors say that the changing regulatory and legislative landscape keeps them up at night, according to the 2024 MFS DC Plan Sponsor Survey.
Regulatory and legislative change is tough on plan sponsors. Manual processes make updates cumbersome, difficult, and error prone. In the MFS survey, litigation risk (49%) and the overall burden of plan administration (40%) join regulatory and legislative change at the top of their list of sleep-depriving concerns.
2025 ushered in additional uncertainty. The retirement industry already anticipated significant regulatory shifts including changes to catch-up contributions, mandatory auto-enrollment, and participation opportunities for part-time employees. Today, a new administration finds us navigating economic and regulatory uncertainties, along with an unprecedented pace of regulatory change.
Plan advisors who work with recordkeepers focused on participant experience, especially in a new plan transition and enrollment communications, can strengthen existing plan sponsor relationships, capture new ones, and grow revenue. Those bogged down in print, paper, and postage cannot be as nimble in their response and ability to foster plan-sponsor confidence and peace of mind.
How Digital Automation Drives Accuracy and Agility
The regulatory experts behind automation solutions keep a pulse on impending changes. Leaders may even have a seat at the table as changes are taking shape.
This positions them to anticipate and plan for potential effects. Plan advisors that work with recordkeepers who utilize those solutions benefit from a depth and breadth of industry insight, coupled with the ability to quickly adapt.
A “Create Once, Distribute Everywhere” (CODE) model uses one data and rules engine that can be leveraged across all channels to personalize content. This simplifies and streamlines execution—and reduces the risk of inconsistencies and errors.
Plus, a holistic view of participant engagement delivers seamless, integrated conversations across channels while empowering users to customize content at the plan level, personalize messaging for each individual, and enhance engagement throughout the entire lifecycle.
Going Digital Pays
Digitally automating retirement communications delivers a rapid ROI. Our proprietary data shows eliminating paper, print, and postage costs in favor or interactive plan microsites alone can slash communications by up to 30%. Add in agility, accuracy, and enhanced compliance. With these, and the ability to boost enrollment and deferral rates, the question shifts from “Why change?” to “Why didn’t we change sooner?”
SEE ALSO:
• OneDigital, Broadridge Partner on Enhanced Retirement Data Solutions