
1. No jargon or investment speak
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2. Narrow the number of investment options
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3. Understand the frame and devise easy-to-use translation tools
Participants have a way they think about certain facets of retirement planning. The way participants think about retirement savings is in terms of deferral of their current salary what theyre putting away today, says Mitchem. They dont think about it in terms of whats the balance I need to achieve when Im 65? or income replacement ratios. Focus on talking to plan participants within the frame theyre using. Lets talk to them about percentage of salary saved, she continues. A good benchmark is 10% to 15%.
If you want to get people into the practice of thinking about income replacement ratios, start with what they know and are comfortable with: percentage of salary deferred. Then, give them an easy tool to convert that into an income replacement ratio.
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4. Design employer contributions to maximize plan objectives
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5. Dont underestimate savings potential.
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6. Automate success
Employers could consider automatically placing people into an elevated savings rate for a specified period of time, say six months, to see if they can actually do it, says Mitchem. But instead of forcing them to sign up for a higher savings rate, you allow them to opt out if its not something they want to do.
More than half of all plans that automatically enroll employees use a default rate of 3% or less. Instead, experts from Diversified suggest setting a default rate that is at least as high as your current opt-in rate and integrate automatic escalation to improve participants retirement readiness over time.
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7. Limit plan loans
According to Diversified, 87% of all retirement plans offer loans and 47% of plans offer multiple loans. If the plan is falling short on average balances, loan activity is likely to be at least partly to blame. If improving employee retirement readiness is a business goal for the plan, why not consider a change to plan design to limit or eliminate plan loans?
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