Background: This week’s Research Minute will take a closer look at the RRC Summit session, “Are Plan Sponsors and Participants Aligned?”, which featured panelists Monica Centers, Southwest Airlines; Emily Phillips, Willis Towers Watson; Stephen Popper, SageView Advisory Group and moderator Jeri Savage, MFS Investment Management. This session outlined both opportunities and challenges that plan sponsors face in meeting the financial needs of participants.

The RRC Summit was held in late November at BNY Mellon in New York City. The next Summit will take place on February 29th at Pacific Life in Newport Beach, CA.

Findings: Plan sponsors of all sizes unanimously prioritize Secure 2.0 adoption as the top concern for participant needs, followed by evaluating the investment lineup holistically. The third priority varied by plan size and included enhancing governance for small plans, addressing operational issues for mid-size plans, and refining the retirement income philosophy for large plans.

When envisioning changes absent budget constraints, panelists expressed interest in implementing a matching program for student loan payments alongside expanding emergency savings vehicle(s) as part of a broader interest in financial wellness. This emphasis on holistic financial wellness is based on the premise that workforces have diverse financial needs, especially related to managing daily expenses. Plan sponsors also focused on determining the ideal structure of lifetime income, especially when considering ongoing challenges with current distribution capabilities across the industry.

This session also delved into participants’ competing financial priorities, with 79% of plan sponsors reporting that competing priorities have a moderate to major impact on participants’ ability to save for retirement. Top competing financial priorities for participants included emergency savings, education savings, student loan payments and inability to save due to living paycheck to paycheck.

Bottom line: This session compared plan sponsors’ key priorities and referenced participants’ competing financial priorities. Key themes emerged around the adoption of Secure 2.0, financial wellness, and the acute challenges that impede participants from saving for retirement. We look forward to revisiting this topic in the RRC’s research agenda this year.

Check out more materials from the Summit, a full agenda and list of speakers for the above sessions, and recordings from the event on our RRC member site. You can also join the conversation about insights from the Summit on LinkedIn.