In early 2025, the project expanded its focus to DC system decision-makers—including plan sponsors, consultants, and advisors. Interviews with 22 employers conducted in early 2025 revealed a gradual shift in mindset—from “we got them to save” toward “now we help them spend wisely.” However, operational complexity, fiduciary risk, and participant inertia remain major challenges. Findings from this interview phase are available below.

Capturing direct input from plan sponsors, this resource surfaces the key opportunities they see in expanding retirement income options as well as the practical and regulatory obstacles standing in the way. It offers an honest look at where the industry stands and what would accelerate progress.

There are multiple key measures of retirement income adequacy and one such focus is on replacement rates as an aspirational benchmark. These are typically around 70% of pre-retirement income, and are often less than 100% due to reduced expenses and tax differences in retirement. You can't rely on a single metric and need more nuanced approaches to evaluating whether participants are truly prepared for retirement income needs.

Since the inception of our partnership, the Retirement Research Center (RRC) has navigated a rapidly evolving economic and political landscape, continuously adapting to shifts in policy, market dynamics, and participant needs.

Using Monte Carlo simulations across multiple investor profiles and asset allocation strategies, we can see inflation erodes purchasing power and impacts the likelihood of meeting financial goals . Higher-risk portfolios, longer time horizons, and net saver status improve resilience to inflation shocks, with low-risk portfolios seeing success rates fall dramatically, such as dropping from around 70% to just 2% in severe inflation scenarios.

In this investment-centric roundtable, plan sponsors discussed trends and new opportunities for the core investment menu and real asset exposures.

This report documents the continued growth of Collective Investment Trusts within the defined contribution market, drawing on industry data and participant perspectives. It contextualizes the CIT adoption trend within broader shifts in plan design and fee pressure.

This paper details the findings of a targeted survey that was fielded in late 2024 along with qualitative interviews. A total of 95 industry professionals participated to represent a broad cross-section of the DC ecosystem: consultants, advisors, investment managers, recordkeepers, trustees and other related roles. The goal was to gather insights on the key benefits, obstacles, usage, and expected innovations around CITs.