Westminster Consulting Brochure Defined Contribution & Defined Benefit | Page 21
Expert Opinions
on The Future of Retirement Plans
excerpts from
“Prescience 2017: Expert
Opinions on the Future of
Retirement Plans”
a study conducted by
transamerica
Transamerica Retirement Solutions’ Prescience 2017 is the fifth iteration of
a modified Delphi Study conducted in the second quarter of 2013. The study
examines trends in retirement plans with $25 million to $1 billion in assets. Fiftyfive retirement plan experts from 45 organizations across the nation answered the
85-question survey. Transamerica Retirement Solutions chose survey participants
based on their positions as thought leaders and experienced professionals in the
retirement plan business. Because of their involvement with major industry players,
members of this panel are well suited to foretell high-level trends that will determine the
road ahead for the retirement industry.
• The application of a cluster of innovations enhancing the
retirement readiness of American workers will be the trademark
of the period 2013 – 2017.
Experts surveyed for Prescience 2017 estimate that 59%
of plan sponsors will have received a plan-level retirement
readiness report. Thirty-nine percent will have changed the
design of their plan to enhance the readiness of their participant
population, 55% will have implemented automatic enrollment,
and 45% of those will have adopted default deferral rates of
6% or higher. Most retirement plan service providers will be
showing employees if they are on track to achieve a successful
retirement and telling them how much they need to save to be
on track. Going beyond accumulation in their quest to help
participants achieve retirement success, one-quarter of plan
sponsors will have conducted a search for an in-plan retirement
income solution, and 10% will have implemented such a
solution.
• Evolving attitudes of regulators will do their part to contribute
to the move toward an outcome philosophy of retirement
benefits: lifting limits to maximum default deferral levels,
expanding the scope of IB 96-1 to cover in-plan annuities and
other retirement income guarantees, and changing safe harbor
employer contribution formulas to models more likely to help
workers achieve a successful retirement.
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