Defined Contribution
Research Findings Provide
Valuable Insights into
Not-for-Profit Marketplace
By Rob Goldman | TransAmerica
R
obert L. Weber, the author of A Random Walk in
Science, an anthology of witty, insightful stories about
scientific inquiry and the scientific method, is said to
have remarked playfully that “basic research is what I
am doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” Nowadays, in the
age of “big data,” easily accessible search engines, online databases
and internet-based publication tools, we often encounter the effort
of one business enterprise or another to make sense of the tons of
information at its disposal. Transamerica Retirement Solutions’
interest in not-for-profit research is the result of its decades-long
leadership role in this marketplace. During this period, we have
consistently shared our findings and insights with retirement plan
advisors, sponsors, public policy experts, government officials
and academic consultants. When it comes to retirement readiness
in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector, we do indeed have a very good
sense of what we’re doing.
The recently published Retirement Plan Trends in Today’s
Healthcare Market—2014 is the eleventh annual study conducted
by Transamerica Retirement Solutions and the American Hospital
Association. The study provides important insights on current issues
that impact defined contribution and defined benefit plans in the
14 SUMMER 2013
16 | WINTER 2015
healthcare market. The healthcare study is complemented by our
newly minted research report, Retirement Plans for Institutions of
Higher Education, our second such study, published in October,
2014, which offers findings based on our survey of over 100 plan
sponsors at institutions of higher education. Taken together, these
publications uncover and analyze important savings plan trends,
detail comprehensive benchmarking information, and present an
informative overall picture of retirement savings plans in the notfor-profit sector.
Although for the purposes of this article I will concentrate on
three areas of interest – plan design, investment options and the
role of the advisor – I urge interested readers to contact me for a
full copy of both reports.
403(b) Still the Plan of Choice to Increase Retirement Readiness
Helping employees accumulate income for retirement is by far the
most common primary goal of the retirement plan for healthcare
sponsors. More healthcare plan sponsors are stating that it’s the
right thing to do, indicating an increased awareness among plan
sponsors about the need to assist employees in becoming ready