More Employers Report 401k Plan Enhancements

401k employers, dc plans, Wills Towers Watson, 401k plan sponsor

Saving more is the goal.

Increasing life expectancy, rising health care costs, pensions a thing of the past—saving for retirement has never been more critical. Yet many workers (unsurprisingly) still aren’t saving enough.

The good news: employers are taking steps to help them out. A recent survey by Willis Towers Watson found plan sponsors are making enhancements to 401k and similar defined contribution plans.

Study results showed “more employers are adding ‘automatic’ and Roth design features to their 401k plans, boosting employer contributions, streamlining investment choices and improving fee transparency.”

Almost three-quarters of survey respondents reported auto-enrolling new participants, up from 68 percent in 2014. And 60 percent of plan sponsors now provide auto-escalation; only 54 percent reported doing so in 2014.

Additional improvements plan sponsors have reported making:

“With most employers now offering a DC plan as the primary retirement savings vehicle, they have become very focused on how to improve their plans and deliver better outcomes to participants,” Tammy Hughes, senior retirement consultant with Willis Towers Watson, said in a statement. “The enhancements they are making should go a long way toward encouraging greater participant savings as well as wiser investment decisions.”

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