Plan design best practices

The power of plan design: Helping employees save more automatically

Explore plan design best practices—built around automated features—that seek to strengthen employee retirement readiness and help manage workforce costs.

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Featured insights

Perspectives on one of today’s most important retirement and workforce trends.

Navigating the cost of delayed retirement

An in-depth analysis reveals the potential financial cost and workforce challenges when employees aren’t financially able to retire when they want—and ways plan design can help.

Get the full analysis

Research and insights

Explore timely research and practical perspectives to help strengthen retirement readiness, improve engagement, and support workforce strategies.

5 min read

Cutting the cost of delayed retirement with an employee-first strategy

Explore how automated plan features may create a win-win scenario by helping employees achieve retirement readiness to retire on their own terms while reducing the significant costs of delayed retirement.

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5 min read

Help boost 401(k) savings for non-desk employees

Help boost retirement savings for workers in physically demanding jobs using retirement plan automated features.

Five young men and women gather in a semi-circle, smiling and collaborating on a work project.

6 min read

How to make saving in a 401(k) plan hard (to avoid)

Retirement plans today tend to be designed with features so the average person can begin saving with little effort. Yet, it’s seemingly not working for many employees. Instead of easier, do we need to make it harder to avoid?

A woman celebrating her retirement with friends

5 min read

Embracing 401(k) auto-enrollment with the budget in mind

Data shows that automated features such as automatic (auto) enrollment, auto-increase, and re-enrollment can significantly improve participation rates and help employees save for retirement. Explore cost-neutral ways of adding such automated features to your plan design.

Automated features driving real results

See how employers are using auto enrollment to increase participation and make saving for retirement easier for employees.

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Plan design best practices at work

Discover how one organization used plan design best practices with automated features to help drive 90% participant enrollment and improve retirement readiness.

Client success story (PDF)

Automated features in action

Explore practical ways employers can support and fund automated features—both within the plan and through broader organizational strategies.

Five employees around a table discussing workplace benefits.

6 min read

Smart ideas to help fund automated features Part I: Looking within the retirement plan

Some plan sponsors are concerned that adding automated features could come with additional organization costs. But waiting may cost participants more in potential savings. It’s possible to support these features strategically within the plan’s existing funding structure without compromising the balance sheet.

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5 min read

Smart ideas to help fund automated features, part II: Looking beyond the retirement plan

Here we look beyond the retirement plan budget to uncover broader funding strategies. Delaying automated features may cost participants potential savings. From rethinking total rewards to leveraging tax incentives, organizations can find ways to implement these plan features without significantly increasing overall costs.

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