Benefits June 10, 2002

Most Companies Provide Investment Lessons

June 10, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Some 65% of companies provide investment education to retirement plan participants, either on an ongoing basis or when the employees enroll in the plan and every year after that, a survey finds.
Reported by

According to the TP Track survey by Towers Perrin, 33% of companies educate constantly, while 32% concentrate their education campaigns around plan enrollment.

Otherwise:

  • 24% said their company only coughs up basic information when employees ask for it, and
  • 11% report that their employer provides no education at all

Among those who provide education,

  • 79% do so via a company Web site or Intranet site,
  • 67% use annually distributed print material,
  • 66% use meetings,
  • 61% use quarterly print materials, and
  • 56% rely on call centers

Reaction to Stock Rules

With the issue of company stock in retirement plans still red hot, the TP Track survey asked respondents whose companies currently make matching contributions in employer stock how their organizations were likely to react if Congress passed new company stock restrictions.

Nearly two-thirds, or 63%, of the respondents said they believe their companies would make changes in plan provisions to comply with the new laws. Only 5% predicted that matching contributions would stop.

Representatives of 122 companies responded to the survey. All of the respondents are participants in their organizations’ retirement plans, and half of them have some level of involvement in designing, managing or communicating those plans.
 

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