A higher education plan sponsor wanted to evaluate what steps they could take in helping their plan participants achieve income replacement adequacy. Like many industries, higher education is heavily dependent on a strong workforce to drive organizational goals and to achieve their institutional objectives. Ensuring the financial health of the workforce allows for more secure employees and creates an environment that fosters the healthy growth and development of staff.
Like many employers, the concern lay in developiing a retirement structure that delivered strong results without having those results burden the employer by increasing contributions or guaranteeing benefits.
Multnomah Group worked with the plan sponsor to conduct an assessment of the retirement readiness of their population. This study analyzed participant accumulations and savings behaviors for every employee in the plan to determine, both in aggregate and individually, how effective the plan was in driving participants towards generating adequate assets to replace their current income in retirement. The results of that study were as follows:
The plan was being fully utilized by older employees, but delays in their saving required them to save materially more and work materially longer to achieve their retirement income goals. Based on that analysis, the Multnomah Group reviewed options that would:
The results of that process were important in improving the effectiveness of the plan.
These steps in concert have begun to materially change the financial security of their workforce. Changes to savings and investing behaviors rarely happen overnight, but developing plan designs and services that improve the likelihood of participants achieving their goals is an important objective that greatly aids the financial health of both the employee and the employer.
To find out how Multnomah Group can help your organization achieve its goals, please feel free to contact one of our consultants.