Firms to Aid Pre-Retirees

In a recent survey of 457 U.S. large and mid size employers with retirement plans, 84 percent of firms said they expect to increase efforts to educate employees on saving and investing over the course of the next two to three years. 

Additionally, more than three quarters of the companies said they would increase their use of technology to deliver retirement information to employees over the same period.  Consequently, this could prevent some employees from tossing their paper benefit statements. 

Unfortunately there is a caveat: these firms want to get more of their older workers to leave.  “In the last few years, employers have recognized that their employees aren’t retiring when they want them to . . . [I]t’s a pretty big cost to employers if people don’t move through the workforce as they should.” 

If older workers stay because they feel they have to, they can be less engaged and less productive.  Furthermore, employees who work into their 50s and 60s due to retirement fears often have health and benefit costs higher than those of their younger colleagues. 

Thus, it becomes clear that helping pre-retirees prepare for retirement is long overdue.  “Most employers have not yet moved the needle in preparing their workers for a financially secure retirement.” 

See Richard Eisenberg, Why Firms Will Help the 50+ Plan For Retirement, Forbes, Dec. 3, 2014.