Companies Lose Confidence in Workers’ Ability to Save for Retirement

Hewitt Associates is reporting that, despite continued efforts to educate employees on the importance of saving for retirement, many companies do not feel workers are stepping up to the challenge. According to Hewitt's study of more than 220 large U.S. companies, only 6% are confident their employees will take accountability for their own retirement future this year, down from 12% in 2005. "To address these concerns, an increasing number of companies are implementing automated features that make retirement saving a reactive decision rather than a proactive one." Specifically, 23% are very likely to add automatic enrollment features in their 401(k) plans by the end of the year, 13% are very likely to add contribution escalation features, and 20% plan to add automatic rebalancing of 401(k) accounts.

Source: News Release Hewitt Associates (January 10, 2006)