Transamerica has released the results of its inaugural survey on pooled retirement plan adopters, highlighting the role these plans play in expanding access to retirement savings programs.
As stated in a release from Transamerica, pooled plans allow organizations of various sizes to share the administrative, regulatory, and management costs associated with retirement plans, making them more accessible to a wider range of workers.
Locally, Transamerica’s Cedar Rapids campus is focused on retirement and insurance packages, primarily serving middle-market clients. Transamerica currently maintains a headcount of just over 2,500 employees in Cedar Rapids, making the company one of the top three employers in the market — and one of the larger retirement-planning firms in the country.
The new survey, which gathered insights from over 400 employers with adopted pooled plans, found that 47% used the availability of a pooled plan to introduce their first employee retirement program. Many of these employers were small to mid-sized businesses and startups that had previously been unable to offer retirement plans due to the associated costs, administrative burdens, and fiduciary responsibilities.
“We are a small nonprofit and could not have afforded to spend time to manage a plan,” the release quotes an unnamed survey respondent. “This is a great fit for an organization of our size.”
Darren Zino, head of retirement distribution at Transamerica, emphasized the survey’s findings on the value of pooled plans in meeting the retirement savings needs of both employers and employees.
“Our survey provides empirical data that pooled plans are expanding access to programs that help everyday Americans save for a secure retirement,” Mr. Zino said in the release.
The survey also revealed that 44% of respondents cited attracting employees as the primary reason for offering a retirement plan. As companies across all industries compete for talent, retirement savings plans have become an increasingly important benefit for staying competitive in the job market. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are currently 8.1 million job openings in the U.S., with only 6.8 million unemployed workers available to fill those positions.
“Offering a retirement savings plan is becoming a non-negotiable benefit,” Mr. Zino said.
The survey found that 72% of start-ups and 61% of organizations converting to a pooled solution reported improvements in their employees’ retirement planning. However, the survey also pointed to a need for continued education, with 77% of respondents stating they had little to no familiarity with pooled plans prior to adoption.
“Our purpose is to help people live their best lives, and we do that by supporting employers of all sizes and employees of all income levels with flexible, robust retirement solutions that meet their needs,” Mr. Zino said.
The full report is available on Transamerica’s website.
