Retirement plan sponsors face a slew of challenges in 2013 as they try to stay competitive while dealing with the requirements of new fee disclosure rules, according Mesirow Financial's 2013 Retirement Plan Survey released Tuesday.
Sponsors also face growing liability, with the number of claims against fiduciaries having tripled since the 1990s.
Key findings in the 2013 report:
- 82.1 percent of plan sponsors surveyed said participants did not fully avail themselves of savings and retirement tools, about the same as last year
- 54.5 percent said they offered automatic enrollment features, compared with 49.4 percent in 2012
- 44 percent of respondents offered step-up deferral rate solutions, up from 32.9 percent last year
- 85.3 percent said they used target-date funds, a jump up from 72.4 percent last year.
The survey found that fee disclosure would be a front-burner issue for plan sponsors this year. About 88 percent of respondents said they were reviewing implicit and explicit plan fees in the past six months.
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However, fee disclosure appeared to hold little interest for participants. More than 80 percent of plan sponsors reported that employees had asked very few questions after receiving 404(a) participant fee notification.
"Plan sponsors continue to work diligently to provide the information and tools needed to help participants overcome the inertia and challenges of saving for retirement," Chris Reagan, Mesirow Financial senior managing director and practice leader, said in a statement.
"However, in the end, each participant must take ownership of their future and the reality is that many participants need assistance through custom guidance or a more paternalistic, automated solution."
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Michael S. Fischer
Michael S. Fischer is a longtime contributing writer for ThinkAdvisor. He previously reported on trade and intellectual property topics for the Economist Intelligence Unit and covered the hedge fund industry for MARHedge and Reuters News Service.
