Government defined contribution plans stand out among not-for-profit plans for some of the strategies they employ to prepare workers for retirement.

In some cases, they even stand out from the private sector.

TIAA’s Not-for-Profit Plan Sponsor Insights Survey took a look at the differences, with some of their findings pointing toward more emphasis on getting employees better prepared in ways that could benefit from a little more attention.

One way government plans stand out is in DC plan participation rates.

In fact, says the study, 57 percent of DC plans in the government sector have participation rates that range between 75–100 percent.

The other segments of the NFP sector included in the survey—higher education, private K–12, not-for-profit healthcare and other nonprofit institutions—just 32–47 percent of DC retirement plans have such high participation rates.

Then there’s the government’s focus on income replacement—something that the private sector isn’t driving home as much as it should.

Government-sector plan sponsors, the survey finds, are the most likely of all NFP plan sponsors to say that employees should target a 76–100 percent income replacement rate in retirement (25 percent, compared with just 11–16 percent among other segments).

Considering that standard wisdom outside the sector still generally recommends the traditional 70–80 percent, the government is presenting a more realistic scenario—although even so, the skyrocketing cost of health care in retirement, with predictions of what retirees will need to spend hitting $275,000, even 100 percent may no longer be enough to get by on.

Then there are the best practices used by government plans. While 57 percent offer a guaranteed investment option, 45 percent match 7 percent or more of an employee’s salary in retirement plan contributions and 77 percent offer one-on-one advice services.

But of course that doesn’t mean government plans are any more foolproof than any others, especially since more than half of government sector plan sponsors are still concerned that their participants will not have enough money to retire or to last them through their retirement.

Instant Insights /

Government DC plans do better on participation, income replacement

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