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Benefits November 2, 2009
Participants Making Positive Retirement Savings Moves
November 2, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Bank of America
Merrill Lynch Retirement & Benefit Plan Services'
quarterly report on plan and participant activities within
its proprietary 401(k) business finds 60% of participants
took a positive action (started or increased saving), versus
40% who took a negative action (stopped or decreased
saving).
Reported by Rebecca Moore
An executive summary of the DC Scorecard says 64% of plan participants who changed their savings rate in Q3 chose to increase savings (compared to 63% in Q2, and 53% in Q1). The number of participants who stopped contributing to their plans in Q3 was 46% lower than in Q1 (Q2 was 34% lower than in Q1), and the number of participants who decreased their contribution in Q3 was 44% lower than in Q1 (Q2 was 39% lower than in Q1).
The data also shows a significant year-over-year climb in plan participant use of the firm’s Advice Access service, with a 74% increase in participants accessing advice within employer-sponsored 401(k) plans that utilize this service.
Plan sponsors are doing their part to help participants as well, as the scorecard indicates there was a 12% increase in the adoption of auto enrollment, and a 20% increase in the adoption of Auto Increase. The data also shows a 20% increase in plan usage of Advice Access.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Retirement & Benefit Plan Services’ business includes more than 1,500 plan sponsors and more than 1.5 million actively contributing plan participants.