Michael Walters, Deschutes Investment Consulting, discussion centers around retirement plan design and participant outcomes, with a focus on the use of automatic features like auto-enrollment and auto-escalation to encourage better savings behaviors among participants.
Key points discussed include:
- Plan Design and Participant Outcomes: Walters emphasizes the importance of incorporating automatic features in retirement plans to improve participant outcomes. He mentions that auto-enrollment at higher percentages is more effective in ensuring participants save adequately for retirement.
- Benchmarking and Measurement: Walters highlights that their firm measures participant outcomes by looking at average referral rates, overall savings, and retirement readiness.
- Financial Wellness: The firm also focuses on financial wellness by offering group education followed by one-on-one advice sessions with participants. They stress the importance of emergency funds and debt management as part of overall financial wellness.
- Deschutes Investment Consulting: Walters briefly introduces his firm, noting that they specialize in retirement consulting since 1996, focusing solely on providing beneficial outcomes for their clients’ participants.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
