Zippo Manufacturing Company

The 401(k) committee at Zippo Manufacturing Company, maker of Zippo lighters and related products, focuses not only on helping participants grow their savings but hold onto them too. The committee at this family-owned business looks into what types of plan distributions participants are taking, then uses that information to educate them about the distribution’s pros and cons; only 3% of Zippo staff have taken a loan compared with 19% at peer plans. It raised its automatic escalation ceiling from 12% to 15%, maintains regular, in-person educational meetings, holds multiple off-site educational meetings, inviting significant others, and accepts questions about retirement from retired employees, sometimes for years.

Don Hall, chief financial officer and executive vice president, enterprise project management office, Zippo Manufacturing Company

To get to know them better, PLANSPONSOR sent the 2026 Plan Sponsor of the Year winners a list of questions from which to choose four to answer. Below are the responses from Don Hall on behalf of Zippo Manufacturing.

PLANSPONSOR: How does your organization’s leadership approach its commitment to employee retirement readiness and financial well-being?

Zippo: We are a family company. [We are family owned, and we consider everyone who works for us a member of our family.] We want our family members to be able to retire comfortably at a reasonable age. What “comfortably” and “reasonable” mean is as unique as each family member. We communicate regularly in many forms—electronically, one on one, snail mail, posters, events, etc.—and our longer-serving members mentor our newer members. We communicate the impact it will have on the future to take from today to pay for x, y or z and the need to have an emergency fund. We provide all the required notices and many more. We have one-on-one sessions available for everyone, as requested. We all look forward to our retirement someday!

PLANSPONSOR: What does winning Plan Sponsor of the Year mean to you and your employer? Will you publicize the win outside of the human resources/benefits team?

Zippo: It is a recognition of our current and past family members, our retirement committee and our outside advisers. We recognized our entire family for achieving this accomplishment, at our social gathering on July 17. We will use this award as yet another opportunity to provide additional communication about our 401(k). The award will be placed in our board room at our next board of directors meeting on August 14. Our members have also posted the win on their various social media accounts. It also validates all of our efforts to serve our family!

PLANSPONSOR: What advice would you offer to other plan sponsors aiming to improve employee financial well-being or retirement readiness?

Zippo: We use automatic enrollment and automatic escalation features along with occasional sweeps. Our advice would be to auto-enroll at the lowest number you can and then auto-escalate at 1% a year. At 1%, the paycheck impact is, of course, less than 1% and, [presuming you schedule] pay increases at the same time, [as we have at Zippo,] most of your members will not feel an impact. Of course, matching helps, and we match 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 4% and 5%, or we match 4% on 5%.

Maintain your vigilance and communication while being compliant with all the changes that have been, and will be, made. A great 401(k) plan is critical to attracting and retaining top talent. Serve your family members to the best of your abilities.

PLANSPONSOR: How are changing workforce needs—such as demographics, financial stressors or career paths—shaping your approach to plan design or communication?

Zippo: Our demographics are similar to the world’s with multiple generations in our family. Our communication style and offerings are intentionally created for all of our workforce. Our plan offerings, communication styles and communication channels have been tweaked over time to accommodate our changes. Our retirement committee is constantly seeking, gathering and discussing feedback from our members. Communicate, communicate, communicate!