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403(b) Sponsors More Focused on Outcomes, Expenses, Fiduciary Concerns

An annual survey of 403(b) plans finds a growing, though still modest, focus on participant outcomes.

While only 6 out of 10 (61.5%) employer respondents to the 2016 403(b) Plan Survey from the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) evaluate whether their retirement plan is meeting its goals, 37.5% are measuring participant outcomes, up from 30.3% a year ago.

The eighth annual benchmarking survey of 403(b) plans, sponsored by Principal Financial Group, also found that the number of non-profits using automatic enrollment increased, though only to 19%, up from 16.3% a year ago. Nearly 75% of plan sponsors surveyed are enrolling their employees at a rate of 3% of pay or less.

Employers are contributing more — the average match now is 4.6% of pay, compared with 3.8% in last year’s survey. Participants in those plans are now saving 6.2% of pay on average, up from 5.4% in 2012.

More than 4 in 10 (43%) plan sponsors use a retirement plan advisor; of those, half said they rely on the advisor for assistance with fiduciary responsibility on investments (up from 39% last year).

Other numbers that were up — and are likely to rise higher in the wake of the recent spate of 403(b) university plan litigation filings — include the percentage of:

  • plan sponsors reevaluating how plan expenses are allocated (increasing to 26% from 16.8% last year); and

  • plan sponsors with an investment policy statement (increasing to about 57% from a low of 45% in 2009).

PSCA’s 2016 403(b) Plan Survey reports on the 2015 plan-year experience of 614 not-for-profit organizations.