| | Benefits & Administration | | CRR Offers Retirement Policy Suggestions to the DOL | | The current defined contribution retirement (DC) plan system could be improved along three dimensions, according to researchers from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. In a report prepared for the Department of Labor (DOL), “An Analysis of Retirement Models to Improve Portability and Coverage,” Dr. Alicia H. Munnell, Anek Belbase, and Dr. Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher recommend strategies to enhance portability, reduce plan leakage and protect transfers from employer DC accounts to individual retirement accounts.Read more > | | Vanguard: Mistakes Remain, But Participants Are Better Users of TDFs | | Vanguard reports that more than half of 401(k) participants are now invested in a single target-date fund (TDF), compared with only 13% just a decade ago. Vanguard’s “How America Saves 2018” suggests target-date funds continue to reshape the investment patterns of retirement savers, driving increased diversification and deterring errant, emotional trading. According to the report, the dramatic rise of TDFs—and subsequent portfolio construction benefit—has been driven by the adoption of automatic enrollment, which has tripled in the last decade to nearly half of plans.Read more > | | CDHP, HDHP Participant Consumerism Doesn’t Improve Over Time | | Consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) participants’ engagement does not increase as participants gain more familiarity with plan designs over time, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) Issue Brief. Cost-conscious decision-making also did not increase with time for participants in either traditional or high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). EBRI found, however, it does appear that owners of health savings accounts (HSAs) are slightly more engaged the longer they have owned an HSA.Read more > |
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