The Total View - (Page 14) Plan Popularity Continues The Principal Financial Group® is helping lead the pack in providing comprehensive retirement plan services to employees, and was named the third largest DC service provider in the 2007 PLANSPONSOR Recordkeeping Survey. In fact, at the end of 2006, The Principal® provided administrative services to more than 32,500 DC retirement plans with 2.8 million participants that represented more than $79.5 billion in plan assets under management. As a retirement solutions innovator, we found that the more successful DC retirement plans provide participants with personalized communication, one-on-one meetings, and automatic or “do-it-for-me” features. Features that can help make a retirement plan more successful include employer matching contributions, easy enrollment features, step-up salary deferral increases, and lifecycle or professionally managed investment options. Retirement plan features like these can help employees who are overwhelmed with making enrollment, deferral and investment decisions, and greatly reduce the tendency for many employees to put off making important decisions that may impact their future. While seven in 10 employees had started saving for retirement, almost half of them had saved less than $25,0001. Providing employees with tools and resources that make saving for retirement easier within a retirement program can only help improve the financial outlook for employees. Fast Facts The majority of DC retirement plans with services by The Principal fell into the 401(k) category. More than 25,000 of the DC plans were 401(k)s made up of 2.4 million participants that represent more than $68 billion retirement assets under management. According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, 77% of employees surveyed had access to a retirement savings plan through their employers. Of them, 80% contributed to the plan. 1 2007 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) Retirement Confidence Survey 14
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