BCG Blog

Understanding what is competing for your employee’s money can help you work with them to navigate saving for retirement and encourage more employees to save for retirement.

The millennial workforce is eager to save for retirement, but with immediate financial pressures may not be able to see their way to doing so. By giving them simple ways to save, plan sponsors can help their younger employees find their financial footing and save for a better retirement outcome.

For 82 percent of workers surveyed, the overwhelming consensus is they’ll have a much harder time achieving financial security than their parents’ generation did. Your plan participants want to make the most of their retirement plan contributions. Here’s how you can help.

Many investment advisors often find that a lack of a mental image of what an employee wants retirement to include is a roadblock towards getting employees to commit to retirement savings. Using a recent retirement can do more than help employees say goodbye: it can help some employees get a sense of what they might want their own retirement to look like.

Employees who respond to the market by moving or trading investments with every major market movement may be engaging in “Emotional Investing.” This kind of investing fails to prioritize the long-term goals of retirement planning. An employee’s single best tool for weathering a volatile market is time and compound interest.

Tanking markets, employer bankruptcy, family crisis can all have a devastating impact on retirement and retirement planning. Advisors can help participants save for the unexpected.

They lost benefit options over the years, including pensions. How advisors can help GenXers mind the gaps and improve retirement savings.

Understanding that boards of directors who were formerly reluctant to spend company monies on cybersecurity may now be so cyberfatigued that their decision making may be out of alignment with the realities of employment benefits.

Knowing how to assess and understand company culture when onboarding a new client and how to reassess company culture during times of leadership change can help you meet a client’s needs.

While it may seem your employees’ lack of retirement preparedness isn’t your issue, the fact is it’s impacting your bottom line.

Some financial advisors have also helped employees understand that their goal in retirement planning is more than “beating the market.” Instead, it may involve flexible planning, capturing tax benefits, or helping employees stay the course during volatile markets.

When plan participants are hard-pressed for money, sometimes they’ll turn to their retirement savings. What will that mean come retirement?

While some may prefer a more detached approach to investing through algorithms and robo-investing, the human element is in more demand for most investors. This could be because financial advice, unlike cat food or the very best pen, requires an ongoing understanding of individuals and their specific concerns.

Widening the definition of Investment Advice, under the new Fiduciary rule, may come with new exceptions and exemptions. These exceptions and exemptions may track those already in place by SEC regulations.

Focusing on board leadership styles and how that might impact interaction with a financial advisor to a plan could make synchronizing those two aims a little easier.

Travel, new cars, second homes … are participants planning for all the expenses associated with those wish-list items? How advisors can develop an easy checklist that brings these costs into focus.

Cosigning a child’s student loans can leave parents on the hook for their child’s education expenses. But advisors can help Boomer-aged participants understand the longer-term impact of those decisions on their retirement.

With several provisions of the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Duty rule on hold for now, what other regulations or changes could be on the horizon for this year?

A number of factors are keeping older Americans in the workforce. And many older workers may be confused by the rules regarding RMDs. Some may think that by continuing to work, the funds can stay in the account indefinitely. So what are key points to advise your clients on?

Gen Xers are drowning in debt and it’s affecting their ability to save for retirement. How retirement advisors can help them plan for a more secure retirement.

Retirees are finding that their retirement savings draw downs are going beyond the 4% predictions. How retirement advisors can help them make better retirement planning decisions

Extending your plan to cover all your employees eager to get started on retirement saving may need to consider whether all of those employees are U.S. citizens or their residency status.

Employers who are looking for creative ways to engage more employees in retirement savings may have a few new options!

Just half of today’s workforce participate in company-sponsored retirement plans. How can plan sponsors create more interesting retirement plans?

A recent survey shows that the once-maligned defined benefit plan is making a comeback. Is a defined benefit plan right for your organization?