If you want to reduce benefits costs and get the best ROI from your employee wellness program, implement participation incentives and automation. That’s the finding from a study by bswift, a U.S. software provider for employee benefits administration. The report, 2011 Wellness and Benefits Administration Benchmarking Study, surveyed 150 companies, and found that of those […]
There has been tremendous focus in recent years on advancements in insurer technology in areas such as employee self-service, online reporting, e-claims and Web-based administration systems. For an industry that has historically been slow to embrace technology, there has now been a significant amount of catch-up in the last three to five years. But are […]
American employers are doing more to engage their pension plan members. According to research by U.S.-based financial services provider Charles Schwab, 81% of U.S. employers are now offering 401(k) advice for plan participants, compared to just 42% in 2005. Other significant findings include: 70% of employers include target date funds in their fund line-ups, compared […]
Watch this video A recent trend in DC plans is to go on “auto-pilot,” says Alain Malaket, senior director of pensions and benefits with George Weston Ltd./Loblaw Companies Ltd. Tools such as auto-enrollment, mandatory participation and auto-escalation are becoming increasingly popular. However, Malaket warns that these systems might need a boost from additional programs such […]
Defined contribution (DC) plan members who utilized automatic features such as rebalancing and deferral increase during the recent market downturns realized average account balance increases of 26 percentage points to those who didn’t, according to Mercer. The findings are based on an analysis of Mercer’s database of 1.2 million DC plan participants, excluding any participants […]