Thirty years after the birth of the 401(k) plan, the retirement planning landscape continues to evolve. Employees now have more say in how they manage their retirement savings than ever before. Individuals are directly responsible for securing a comfortable retirement—or not. However, various studies show employee participation in company-defined contribution plans remains low despite employer attempts to change this behavior.

Part of the problem is plan participants are not always armed with the tools or education they need to succeed. Insight from behavioral finance research shows there are three main roadblocks preventing individuals from making critical decisions about retirement plans during the time of enrollment:

• They are overwhelmed with the complexities of enrolling
• They don’t know how much they should save
• They are confused as to how and where they should properly invest those savings

Each of these saving and investing decisions involves individualized assumptions based on life expectancy, health status, income flows and asset returns, to name a few. It’s these intricacies that force plan participants to make less-than-optimal decisions. Additionally, plan sponsors often mistakenly add to these existing challenges by hosting long and confusing enrollment meetings. The hefty literature handed out in the meetings only intimidates people further.

That’s where brokers can help. These five tips will enable brokers to help their clients overcome these roadblocks and plan for a successful enrollment. In turn, deploying these strategies will help put participants on the path to meet their retirement savings goals and properly plan for their future.

1) Simplify the enrollment meeting

Enrolling in a plan should be as headache-free as possible for everyone involved. For many companies, the enrollment meeting is an afterthought. Planning and preparing in advance can make the enrollment process much smoother in the long run.