Participant Overview

Defined contribution savings plans have become defined contribution retirement plans for most Americans due to the decrease in coverage by traditional defined benefit plans over the last two decades. Providing a vehicle for supplemental savings in addition to a defined benefit plan, these plans had no burden to supply any meaningful level of benefits. In this paradigm, participants could make comfortable contributions to comfortable investments.

Now that they have become most Americans’ retirement plan, they have a burden to supply an adequate benefit to their beneficiaries. Required contributions to professionally managed investments are required to attain a specific goal. The problem arises due to the fact that participants are not and can not be trained to become actuaries, investment managers, or forensic accountants.
Participant Overview (continued)

Because of this they don’t have the ability to determine how much they will need to accumulate at retirement or to contribute each payday, choose investments that could earn the return they need or know they are getting it, or use the information on their quarterly reports to know if they are meeting their goals or even if their money was invested correctly.

ERISA requires plan fiduciaries to act for the exclusive purpose of providing adequate retirement benefits, so they have a duty to answer the most critical questions that participants need answers to manage their accounts.
444 W. Ocean Blvd., Suite 800
PMB 116
Long Beach, CA 90802

Office: (562) 987-2255
Fax: (562) 987-2257
bcorrin@retirementanalyst.com