NAPA Net - Polling Places 040618

Would Digital Disclosures Be Better?

Love em or hate em, retirement plan disclosures are a reality – but could they be “better”, and could they be just as effective (and perhaps more so) if they weren’t paper? It’s a topic of interest – retirement plans are a complicated business - and a process that adds a lot of cost to the process.

At the same time, it’s not altogether clear that the current process is effective, at least in terms of getting participants to read, and perhaps more importantly, understand these disclosures.

Concerns remain that many individuals, particularly lower income and/or less-educated, individuals lack access to email or the Internet, and that even those who do might be disinclined to read information delivered to them in that medium. That said, a majority of witnesses testifying at the ERISA Advisory Council meeting, concluded that participants do not read the paper that is sent to them, and many have difficulty navigating and understanding the paper disclosures.

This week - your chance to weigh in on this issue.

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* 1. What do you do with the traditional paper disclosures you receive from your workplace retirement/401(k) plan?

File them away (without reading them).

It depends on the disclosure.

Not realizing what they are, throw them away.

Read them cover to cover

Read them, then file them away

Throw them away

Something else(please specify)

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* 2. What do you think about the number of retirement plan-related disclosures?

About right.

It's not how many, it's how much is in those disclosures (and it should be less).

Too many

Way too many

We could stand to add a couple.

Something else(please specify)

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* 3. Have your plan sponsor clients or the recordkeepers you work with ever commented on the disclosure requirements?

All the time.

Hasn't come up.

Only occasionally.

Something else(please specify)

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* 4. What do you think participants do with the traditional paper disclosures they receive?

File them away (without reading them).

Not realizing what they are, throw them away.

Read them cover to cover

Read them, then file them away

Throw them away

Something else(please specify)

Question Title

* 5. While participants can opt to receive many of the currently mandated disclosures in electronic form, the default is paper. Do you think the default should be changed?

Depends on the disclosure.

No, a paper default is appropriate.

Not sure.

Yes, the default should be electronic.

Something else(please specify)

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* 6. Other comments about disclosures, paper disclosures, mandated disclosures, the potential for electronic disclosures, or life in general?

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* 7. What is your role working with retirement plans?

Advisor

Provider

TPA

Plan sponsor

Recordkeeper

Other (please specify)

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* 8. What size plans do you PRIMARILY work with?

Under $10 million in assets

$10-$20 million

$20-$50 million

$50-100 million

$100 million - $250 million

$250 million - $500 million

Above $500 million

Other (please specify)

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* 9. Suggestions for future survey questions?

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* 10. All responses are anonymous and confidential, of course - but if you'd like me to know who you are, or allow for a response, you can leave your email below...