During the DC Plan Summit, participants broke off into small groups to discuss the major challenges facing plan sponsors. Here are some highlights of the sessions and key takeaways for participants:
Moderator: Amanda Fickling, director, marketing and communications, group retirement services, Great West Life
Topic: The right number: How much is enough?
How much is enough when it comes to saving for retirement? What percentage of income should people target for their retirement savings and what are the various sources they can come from?
Key takeaways:
There was a consensus that there’s no magic number for retirement savings. Plan sponsors discussed how it could be helpful to reframe the conversation to highlight how much money people are leaving on the table when they don’t save.
Plan sponsors can work to raise awareness about the value of the plan by providing non-participants with statements about how much they could have contributed or saved.
Plan sponsors think plan design has the biggest impact on creating a successful retirement outcome for members. Participants discussed automatic enrolment and how there should be an option to enrol in the plan on the first day at a new job.