It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that retirement plan sponsors are expected to look long and hard at total plan costs during the coming year.
According to research in Aon Hewitt's "2016 Hot Topics in Retirement and Financial Well-Being," sponsors have already begun to turn their attention to costs.
Among respondents to the survey on which the research is based, 35 percent of plan sponsors have recently engaged in a review of plan costs, with 33 percent bringing in a third party to benchmark or evaluate costs.
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But that's chump change compared to the number who say they're going to take such actions in 2016, with 79 percent of sponsors who haven't already reviewed plan costs and 40 percent of those who haven't called in a third party for cost benchmarking/evaluation saying that they're "very likely" to do so during the year.
Thirty-five percent have already negotiated more favorable pricing with vendors and/or fund managers, with 38 percent saying they're "very likely" and 39 percent that they're "likely" to do the same in 2016.
They're also changing fund offerings to cut costs (33 percent have already done so; 26 percent are "very likely" and 36 percent "likely" to do so during the year).
In addition, 33 percent say they've already restructured fees in the plan so administrative fees are assessed to participants in a more equitable manner (e.g., consistent asset-based/revenue sharing or per-person charge to participants). Fourteen percent say they're very likely, and 25 percent say they're likely, to do so this year.
And some lucky participants are sharing less of the plan expenses, with 13 percent of sponsors already making that so. This year 3 percent are very likely, and 15 percent, are likely to do the same.
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