Many plan fiduciaries and providers are acutely aware of the potential benefits—to both plan sponsors and participants—of keeping participant assets in-plan during retirement, and some plan sponsors are implementing, or strongly considering, plan design changes necessary to make their plans more effective decumulation vehicles.

Creating a retiree-friendly plan provides sponsors with the benefit of scale. By successfully retaining retiree assets during the decumulation phase, plan sponsors may achieve greater scale with which to negotiate more favorable pricing while participants maintain access to institutionally priced investment products and services during their retirement years. Conversely, “to retirement” plans that do not seek to retain retiree assets remain fertile grounds for cultivating potential wealth management clients for providers that offer these services in a retail market.

Retirees are a decidedly heterogeneous cohort and those who decide to keep their defined contribution (DC) assets in-plan will inevitably turn to their retirement providers to guide them through critical financial decisions related to healthcare expenses and Social Security, and to help them construct an effective investment and drawdown strategy. In many cases, making DC plans effective decumulation vehicles will call for substantial plan design changes to ensure participants have the planning tools, advisory services, withdrawal options, and investment opportunity set necessary to carry out their retirement income strategies.

Our report, U.S. Retirement End-Investor: Solving for the Decumulation Phase, provides a holistic look at retirement investors’ investment decision-making factors, financial stressors, sources of advice, and topics of interest, among other key considerations, and how the enactment of decumulation-oriented plan design changes could result in fresh opportunities for asset managers and other retirement providers. Explore these topics and more.

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