Retirement Made Simpler: Helping you automate your 401(k) step-by-step
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Research shows that automating your 401(k) can help your employees save money for retirement. Below, you'll find landmark studies and the latest research and information to help you better understand, and build support for, 401(k) automation in your workplace.
Automatic 401(k) Basics Reaching Employees Investment Calculators
Auto 401(k) Toolkit Employer Research Investor Updates
Investment Behavior Investor Education Pension Protection Act
Saving for the Future Smart 401(k) Investing Additional Financial Resources  
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Automatic 401(k) Basics
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Learn the language of automatic 401(k)s. Understand how and why they work.
  • Department of Labor and IRS publication: Automatic Enrollment 401(k) Plans for Small Businesses
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  • 401(k)s Basics: What You Need to Know
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  • The Business Case for 401(k) Automatic Enrollment
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  • The Next Generation of Automatic 401(k) Plans
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  • How to Implement an Automatic 401(k) Plan and Increase Employee Contributions
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  • 401(k)s Made Easy: Automatic Retirement Savings
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  • The Automatic 401(k): A Simple Way to Strengthen Retirement Savings
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  • Automatic Savings Vehicles: Putting Workers and the Economy in a Pro-Saving Direction
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Auto 401(k) Toolkit
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A toolkit made specifically for you.

Full Toolkit
  • Retirement Made Simpler Toolkit – Full Version
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Toolkit Pieces
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Investment Behavior
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There is a wealth of research that explains how and why people invest—even why they don’t. Learn more about investor behavior—straight from the experts.

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Saving for the Future
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Research shows that among adult households aged 55 and older, most have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Find out more about the importance of saving and how it affects your employees’ future.
  • New Research from EBRI: Low-Income Workers Likely to Benefit More Than Thought from Auto-Enrollment in 401(k) Plans
    New research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds that auto-enrollment of participants in 401(k) plans is likely to be most beneficial to young and low-income workers, although high-income workers are likely to benefit from it as well.
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  • Research Findings—Automatic Enrollment in 401(k) Plans Leads to Higher Match Rates
    New research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) finds that employers adopting automatic enrollment in their 401(k) plans have also generally increased the "employer match" to participant’s accounts—in some cases, by a significant amount. The EBRI research is the first using actual plan information on both actual auto enrollment and actual match rate information both before and after adoption of auto enrollment.
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  • Vanguard Analysis of First-Quarter 2009 Participant Activity
    Vanguard analysis of first-quarter 2009 participant activity indicates that the median balance of participants’ accounts fell by 17% from January 2008 through March 2009. About 36% of participants saw their account balances rise or remain flat. Nearly 20% of participants saw their balances fall in a range of 1% to 20%. About three in 10 experienced declines of more than 30% over the 15 months.
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  • 2008 401(k) Benchmarking Survey shows strong gains in automatic enrollment adoption, satisfaction
    This year's survey—conducted by Deloitte, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the International Society of Certified employee Benefits Specialists—confirms that dramatic gains have been made in the adoption of automatic enrollment: "42% of the employers surveyed now have an auto-enrollment feature—nearly double from the last Survey (23%). And 26% of this year’s Survey respondents reported they are considering adding an auto-enrollment feature—perhaps with some knowledge of the high (96%) satisfaction rate expressed by employers who have made the switch to auto-enrollment."
    Read the Survey
  • EBRI: Impact of 401(k) "Automatic" Features Positive
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  • EBRI: The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey: Americans Much More Worried About Retirement, Health Costs a Big Concern
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  • Retirement Saving for Middle- and Lower-Income Households: The Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the Unfinished Agenda
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  • The Potential Effects of Retirement Security Project Proposals on Private and National Savings: Exploratory Calculations
    Download PowerPoint Presentation on Net National Savings
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  • The Retirement Security Project: Common Sense Reforms, Real World Results
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Reaching Employees
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Want to educate your employees? These resources can help.

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Employer Research
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Read the latest employer-focused automatic 401(k) research.

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Investment Education
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Help your employees make the right decisions about saving for retirement. These tools can be used in your education packets.

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Smart 401(k) Investing
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Help your employees invest with confidence, using these resources.

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Investment Calculators
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Need to know how much it takes to retire comfortably? These calculators can help.

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Investor Updates
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The latest news and information on retirement savings.

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Pension Protection Act
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The PPA gives plan sponsors plenty of reasons to move forward with automatic features.

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Additional Financial Resources
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More useful information on retirement savings.

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White Papers
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Stay current with the latest research from plan administrators, plan consultants and others related to automatic 401(k)s.

These resources are offered to stimulate discussion and decision-making related to automatic 401(k)s. Retirement Made Simpler does not endorse the ideas and information presented below.


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