Managed Accounts Benefit Employers and Employees Alike: Fidelity

Managed accounts. What’s not to like?

So say an increasing number of employers and their employees, Fidelity Investments reported Wednesday.

Fidelity researchers examined how companies and their workers viewed and engaged professional help for their retirement plans, polling 212 corporate benefits managers, holding four focus groups and surveying 468 respondents online, in the first quarter of last year.

They found that 51% of employers considered managed accounts a good way to retain employees, and 49% said they helped recruit the best workers.

Fifty-seven percent of companies said workplace managed accounts were “very important” in helping their employees prepare for retirement. Fifty-three percent noted that managed accounts ensured appropriate retirement savings investing by their employees.

The research further showed that the more experience employees had with managed accounts, the more they appreciated them.

Forty-eight percent of users named regular monitoring of their investments as the offering’s chief benefit, while 44% said the annual review was essential and 38% found ongoing management helpful.

In contrast, workers who had not used a managed account were less likely to perceive their value. Thirty-nine percent of nonusers said they did not understand what was on offer, and 25% said they did not know enough about managed accounts to use the service.