Westminster Consulting Brochure Defined Contribution | Page 22

• Fee compression will lead advisor teams to reduce their
involvement in less lucrative activities such as vendor due
diligence searches and group education meetings to focus on
emerging specialties more valuable to plan sponsors, such
as searches for retirement transition counseling services and
defined benefit plan consulting.
• The discussion about retirement will change to a discussion
about life choices and options for an individual, of which
retirement may be one. The longevity issue will change what
‘retirement’ means.

• The growth in the demand
for DB plan administration
services occurs at the same
time as the sophistication of
payroll systems enhances
the quality of payroll data,
enabling the development
of consolidated employment
and compensation history
databases that make it easier to
administer defined benefit plans.

• Mobile technology will also
be handy with plan sponsors, facilitating
fiduciary documentation, storage
“You could see some sort of
of meeting handouts, attendance
structured solution that addresses
records, annotations, and minutes.
accumulation with a guaranteed
Greater use of mobile technology
rate of return (floor benefit
may affect plan-level retention
+ upside) and provides for an
for providers, advisors, and
annuitization feature at retirement.
advisory firms. The nature of
It won’t be cheap, but if the industry
records that need to be migrated
truly believes that savings rate
in the event of plan transition
and asset allocation are the keys
will be affected.
to retirement security, then the

“The coming Department of Labor
regulations requiring a projection
of retirement income based on
current account balances will have a
significant impact on how advisors and
plans interact with participants, as
well as on how participants perceive
their retirement readiness.”

Today, American workers want their employer to call the
default choices likely to bring about success while retaining
the option to make alternative choices. Although the
emphasis on outcomes is reminiscent of the age of DB
plans, it is clear that workers today want a retirement
system that calls for individual responsibility.

• Advisors recommend plan designs incorporating
automatic enrollment for all employees, an automatic
solution has to be a slow and steady
contribution level above 6%, a matching contribution
approach.”
• As practices consolidate and the
formula encouraging participants to save more, and frequent
number of specialized advisors grows,
automatic deferral increases while staying within the budgetary
the market share of top advisory firms
constraint of the organization.
expands, and provider relationships with the right advisors and
consultants become key drivers of plan sales for recordkeepers.

By the end of 2017, we believe public attention will be turning to
poverty in retirement: the time will be right to discuss serious
reform to save the Social Security retirement program and other
components of the public safety net.

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