QOTW: Top Plan Concerns

As we begin planning for 2022, we wanted to know what issues are top of mind for plan sponsors. We hear in the industry a lot about ESG, retirement income, and HSAs.Only one of these made the top 5. The number one concern of plan sponsors, by far, is participant education, cited by nearly 70 percent of respondents. More than half of plan sponsors also indicated that financial wellness programs were a concern. The third most common concern was lifetime income, indicated by 30.2 percent of respondents. Cybersecurity is also on the radar of a more than a quarter of respondents. Rounding out the top 5 concerns is plan compliance.

We also asked respondents what their top priority for 2022 is regarding their plan. There were a handful of votes for cybersecurity, financial wellness, and a few other items from the list, but participant education and participation were top. Other top priorities for next year include:

• Compliance and on-site visitations of our TPA for enrollment purposes
• Currently completing the TPA RFP process.
• Determining whether I should get a better performing QDIA - TDF.
• Employers remain closed due to COVID and outreach has been a challenge. The Plan is only bringing in 1/3 of new enrollments per quarter since COVID.
• Encouraging ALL staff to begin/increase deferrals in retirement plan.
• Enrollment/Education
• Getting low-savers to increase their contribution and take better advantage of the company match.
• Governance.
• How to create emergency savings
• Increase participation
• Keeping up with all documentation requirements
• Lifetime Income disclosure implementation
• Lifetime Income solution analysis
• Looking a Plan Costs - are they in alignment with benchmark.  Making sure Plan Committee is functioning effectively.
• Missing Participants process
• Old Accounts / Missing Participants: We began sending letters to all participants in the plan that had termed to remind them of their accounts.  We found three of them had passed away with one of them being deceased more than 5 years ago.
• Our top concern is being able to reach team members on early and late shifts who are on the clock and coming earlier or staying later for a meeting is not a priority.  Some aren't tech savvy either.
• Participant Education is always top our list each year.  Although all items checked are relevant items currently and need further review to see how to better fit them in with our plan's goals
• Participant Education targeted for various age groups/ life cycles, including HSA education.
• Raising of consciousness of employees to favor pension saving as a daily meal or daily hygiene so necessary for one’s health.
• we are currently adding Roth and after tax contributions.  Concern is how the Biden administration will change the savings opportunities for the after tax options.
• We just completed the selection of the finalists and now will be moving on to more formal presentations and then selection/transition (1Q -2Q 2022)
• We would like to continue to enhance the investment options and build on the financial wellness already offered.