Retirement Is Easier Than Ever

Retirement planning is getting easier and easier. A Willis Towers Watson survey finds that plan sponsors continue to add enhancements to their retirement plans, including automatic features. In fact, 73 percent now automatically enroll new participants—a percentage that’s been rising steadily, from 52 percent in 2009 and 68 percent in 2014.

Still, 47 percent of those companies who haven’t added auto-enrollment cite cost as the chief reason not to do so. They also hesitate to add re-enrollment, with 80 percent only making the effort to auto-enroll at the time the employee is hired.

But just a quarter of employers have increased their plan contributions over the past five years. Among those doing so, 60 percent raised the employer match to do it; 51 percent did so by encouraging employee savings and employee engagement; and 44 percent offset benefit changes in their defined benefit program.