Across the $6.8 trillion 401(k) market, recordkeepers, asset managers, plan sponsors, and technology providers are finding new ways to deliver personalized solutions as they strive to attract, retain, and grow participant assets. Our latest research highlights four areas of focus:

• Participant communications, including participant website user experience designs and multimedia content.

• Financial wellness programs that seek to use participant data to personalize participant education initiatives to both provide guidance on and facilitate recommended next best actions to get their financial houses in order.

• Investment options, including target-date funds which have added capabilities to automatically customize asset allocations and glidepaths to individual participants. Also covered are decumulation-oriented retirement income products with personalized features, such as access to professional guidance and advice resources.

• Providers of financial guidance, planning, and advice to plan participants are seeking to better scale business models for participants who could benefit from help with their finances but may not require, or want, a holistic financial planning relationship. For those who do, technology innovations and data-sharing agreements are enabling advisors to improve relationships with participants and to even bring in-plan assets under the umbrella of their assets under management without requiring a rollover out of the plan.

Learn more about the increasing role personalization is playing in the defined contribution ecosystem with our latest report, U.S. Retirement End-Investor 2023: Personalizing the 401(k) Investor Experience. In addition to covering personalization initiatives in the defined contribution marketplace, this research offers complete sizing of the 401(k) and individual retirement account (IRA) markets, representing Cerulli’s most comprehensive investor-level retirement research and includes analysis of the savings and decision-making behavior of 401(k) participants.