In a First, Plan Sponsors Say Top Priority Is Retiree Outcomes

Retirement plan sponsors are taking a greater interest in their participants’ retirement outcomes, according to Fidelity’s fifth annual Plan Sponsor Attitudes survey. In fact, getting employees ready for retirement is their No. 1 goal for the first time since Fidelity started the survey.

Goals that have been high on the list in the past, according to Jordan Burgess, head of defined contribution investment only business for Fidelity, include reducing business costs related to the plan and attracting employees.

One reason for the change in focus, Burgess suggested in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.com, was that sponsors’ data shows that their retirement plan participants simply aren’t prepared for retirement. The survey found 54% of sponsors said their participants don’t save enough, and 58% said they’re delaying retirement because they haven’t saved enough, he said. “There’s some hard data there that says they’re looking at this, and the numbers aren’t positive.”

Advisors and the work they’ve done with sponsors to increase awareness about the importance of improving retirement outcomes are also likely responsible for sponsors’ growing altruism, according to Burgess. “What we’ve seen in our survey over the last three or four years is a growing utilization of advisors in the 401(k) DC market,” Burgess said. The current survey found about 90% of sponsors are working with an advisor.

Sponsors are also more likely to say they are satisfied with their advisor, he added. “The other part is that their expectations of what they want from the advisor have gone up dramatically in terms of a knowledgeable advisor in the DC space. One hypothesis here is that between looking at their own plan data and also based on the work that the advisors have done with them, we’re starting to see a shift in their mind-set.”

Burgess suggested that because they’ve been working with advisors, “they’ve straightened out the funds in the plan over the last couple of years. They’ve addressed their fiduciary responsibilities. They’ve focused on fees, and now we’re starting to see some changes in what they’re planning to do going forward with plan design changes.”

Although satisfaction with advisors is high—66% of sponsors said they were happy with their advisors—the survey found about 13% said they were thinking about switching advisors, up from 10% last year, Burgess said. “The biggest driver of that switch was wanting a more knowledgeable advisor. The reason I think that’s important is it’s the specialist, the knowledgeable advisor, that seems to be focusing on the things that matter most to them.”

Those things include fiduciary duties, plan performance, plan design and cost reduction, he said.