The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has announced that its ERISA Advisory Council will be examining issues and considerations related to facilitating lifetime retirement plan participation. The council will examine some of the factors that lead participants to leave their assets in, or move them out of, a plan.
In explaining its rationale, the DOL cites the recent movement of participant assets out of DC and DB plans and into retirement accounts not covered by ERISA — such as IRAs or other savings accounts — or in the form of plan distributions.
The council will focus on understanding plan sponsors’ attitudes toward keeping participants within their plans or within the employer-based system overall, and identifying steps that can be taken to encourage individuals to stay in the system.
It will examine the types of communications participants are receiving from their employer when they leave employment, and whether the quality of the participant’s decision-making can and should be enhanced by communication or other plan design features under the plan sponsor’s control.
