Employees Identify Potential Retirement Plan Offering Improvements

More than eight out of ten respondents (84%) who had a workplace plan said they take an active role in managing their retirement savings and investments, compared to only about half (53%) without any type of retirement savings vehicle.    

However, according to a press release, respondents identified a number of ways employers could be more proactive in facilitating and stimulating employee savings, including:

• Offering a diversity of investment options within their plans (88%);
• Making employees aware of what their current accumulated savings account balance would be if converted into a monthly income stream upon retirement (84%);
• Providing more education and tools to help employees better understand how to save (83%);
• Offering a workplace retirement plan, regardless of the employer’s size (76%); and
• Incorporating plan strategies to make saving easier and more automatic for employees (75%).

According to the findings, a majority of Americans believe the current private retirement savings system is not at all broken. In addition, nearly three-quarters of those polled (74%) agreed – and almost half (49%) strongly so – that saving for retirement was an individual’s responsibility and not the government’s job.  

The ING Survey, Beyond the Politics and Pundits: What Americans Think about the Private Retirement System, was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs from March 18-22, 2010, and polled a randomly-selected sample of 1,000 adult men and women nationwide.