Sponsors of defined contribution plans have increased the useautomated features in those plans over the past 10 years as theyseek to boost plan participation rates, saving ratesand balanced asset allocation strategies.

That’s according to Vanguard’s study of DC plans, How America Saves 2017, which also finds that,in addition to the use of such features as auto-enrollment andauto-escalation and the use of target-date funds as qualifieddesignated investment options, during 2016 there have also beensteady sponsor contributions—another means of improving participantoutcomes.

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In fact, 97 percent of participants were on the receiving end ofan employer-matching contribution last year. According to thestudy, when nonmatching contributions are also taken intoaccount—which can be structured as variable or fixed profit-sharingcontributions, or employee stock ownership plans—94 percent ofsponsors offered some sort of employer contribution, benefitting 98percent of participants in aggregate.

The study finds that close to half of plans now use automaticenrollment, which represents 300 percent growth of this featureover the past 10 years. That’s led to a much higher participationrate, since plans with automatic enrollment exhibit a 90 percentparticipation rate.

When compared with voluntary enrollment, the difference isclear, since voluntary plans are still stuck at their 10-year-oldparticipation rate of 63 percent.

Considered as an aggregate, across all plans, the averageparticipation rate last year was 79 percent, up 16 percent from2007.

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The increase in default deferral rates added by sponsors is alsoshowing improved savings. Over the last decade, plans with defaultdeferral rates of 4 percent or more have doubled to 48 percent,while plans with a default savings rate of 6 percent or higher havenearly tripled to 20 percent.

Two-thirds of automatic enrollment plans have now implementedautomatic annual deferral rate increases, and that nudges savingsrates higher by one to two percentage points each year.

In a statement, Jean Young, senior research analyst in theVanguard Center for Investor Research and lead author of the study,says, “When auto features were first introduced, there seemed to besome hesitancy from plan sponsors to default participants at higherrates, believing it might discourage participation. Today, moresponsors are embracing higher default rates and, importantly, wefound that these higher rates are sticky.”

Last but not least, as sponsors turn to TDFs as QDIAs, extremeallocations and frequent trading in DC accounts are declining. Theinfluence of TDFs means there’s a smaller percentage ofparticipants investing exclusively in equities, too; that’s fallenfrom 17 percent in 2007 to 6 percent in 2016.