PSNC 2015: CEO Roundtable
Retirement plan industry leaders discuss practical solutions for retirement plan sponsors.
“Automation plays the key role in the savings rate and accumulations,” said Peter Gordon, CEO of John Hancock Retirement Plan Services. That strategy is the core of what needs to be done, he said. If you automatically enroll new participants and re-enroll older ones, you can impact 85% of the group as a whole. Other plan design features such as Roth conversions can motivate participation on a tax basis, he said.
Panelists also discussed the rapid evolution of the retirement industry and predicted the next practical applications that plan sponsors may use. For instance, Joe Ready, executive vice president of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust said, “Even if participants do OK with their asset accumulation, they are not in good shape if they retire with a lot of debt.”
Ready noted that Wells Fargo takes a holistic approach with participants. The company urges plan sponsors to imagine participants as being in four very separate buckets. There are the early savers—auto-functionality works well for them. The mid-career participants are struggling with aging parents and college tuition. [In] the third bucket are near retirees who need help optimizing their savings. And the last bucket contains those living in retirement who need financial help managing longevity and investment risk.
“Think about what you offer participants, keeping in mind the four buckets. If you thought it was hard to get people into the initial plan, the next big challenge will be the near retirees and the products and services they need now,” he said.
Eric Wietsma, senior vice president, retirement services sales and worksite education
for MassMutual Retirement Services, spoke about how retirement benefits are viewed
in the overall benefits scheme. “Are we seeing a convergence of benefits? As
you look at macro trends, employers will not be able to continue to pay for
health benefits, and retirement plans are in the middle of this dilemma. We may
not be far away from a time when employees receive a pot of money and they can
sort out the benefits they need.”
Wietsma emphasized the importance of
financial wellness for participants. Employers must keep in mind that if
employees work longer, the company may face real financial issues such as increased
health care costs, disability claims and workers’ compensation.
To promote financial wellness, Gordon said, John Hancock
teaches budgeting, which it calls the broader subject’s most popular model. The
practice has led to healthier employees, with lower levels of stress, he said.
Ready concurred, calling budgeting the No. 1 wellness component. He also spoke
about how “big data” affects plan sponsors and how Wells Fargo is on the cusp
of using it to engage employees as they prefer to be engaged—whether by phone, virtually, or face-to-face. Plan
sponsors may look forward to communicating with participants via wearable
devices and voice recognition programs, he said.
There are several retirement income products on the market, but, according to
Wietsma, plan sponsors are hesitant to pull the trigger. “All products are
leading us in the right direction.”
Instead, when time for retirement, many participants take lump sums and put
them into an individual retirement account (IRA). Distributions are very
complex. Ready envisions, in the near future, participants keeping assets in
their employer plan. “Why leave if they’ve had their money in the plan for
years and years, and many advisers won’t take clients with less than $150,000?
Staying in the plan is a good option.”
Lastly, the panel discussed the implications of the recent recordkeeper
consolidations. In this very competitive market, the consensus was that the
consolidations can be completed without disruption to plans and that the
remaining recordkeepers must up their game, making the industry stronger and
better.