Small businesses, it is often said, power the nation's economy. Firms with fewer than 500 employees represent 99.9 percent of all businesses, according to the Small Business Administration. Upwards of 55 million people work for businesses that do not sponsor retirement plans. That coverage gap widens among small businesses. Only 48 percent of employees in firms with less than 50 workers have access to a workplace retirement plan, compared to 91 percent in firms with more than 500 workers. In 2011, Vanguard began targeting the small plan market when it launched the Vanguard Retirement Plan Access, or VRPA, unit of its recordkeeping arm, which specifically serves plans with less than $20 million in assets. On average, VRPA plans have 43 participants and $2.4 million in assets. Vanguard's annual report on data from 11,300 plans and 480,000 participants under the unit gives a window into the good, the bad, and the ugly of small retirement plans, and just how impactful automatic enrollment is to generating savings. READ MORE:

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