As a retirement plan sponsor, providing education for your team so that they can make the most of the retirement plan is critical. When employees are financially well, they tend to perform better with their day-to-day duties, as well as have better health outcomes.

There are several financial services companies that survey employees around their retirement plan offerings, what keeps them up at night, and what they are looking for in a company sponsored plan. I wanted to highlight just a few of those results to help understand the importance of both having a healthy retirement plan but also having a plan for educating your employees.

Below are a few results I found interesting from the Charles Schwab “Retirement Reality Check” survey around Participant Readiness.

1. In 2024, 43% of employees felt they were “very likely” to reach their retirement savings goals. In 2025, that number dropped down to 34%. It’s important to note that in 2023, 37% of respondents said they were “very likely” to reach their goals, so 2024 was a bit of a jump, but having 2025 results drop below that original figure is interesting, especially as the national average for deferrals have held steady at around 7.4% and participation rates has been holding on at around 64-65%. Having a healthy matching or profit-sharing program certainly helps employees reach their goals and we are happy to help show you the impact that can make on your team. One way that TJG can help your employees feel confident in their retirement plans is by giving them access to regular and quality financial education via either a one-to-one session or even group seminars. A one-to-one session is a private conversation for 15-30 minutes with someone who can help your employees evaluate their options and help create an financial action plan. Access to information on how they can maximize their company’s retirement plan is a critical step!
2. Even though 71% of employees state they were “on top” of their 401(k) investments, 74% of employees stated they wanted personalized investment guidance in the 401(k) plan. This is likely the topic that TJG discusses the most when we have one-to-one sessions with employees. In most of these reviews, employees just want to confirm that they have a mix of stocks, bonds, etc. that aligns well their retirement goals, and checking in at least once a year, is a best practice. Many times, these sessions serve as an opportunity for your employees to have a sounding board on their retirement savings plan, often centered around investments. The goal of these sessions is to educate your team on making sound savings and investment decisions.
3. When it comes to “obstacles” that impacted employee retirement savings the top 3 results were: Inflation, Keeping up with monthly expenses, and Stock market volatility. We have several seminars designed to educate employees on these topics. Recently, the most requested Educational Seminar has been “Budgeting.” Employees who have and stick to a budget tend to have better portfolio outcomes.

Lastly, a highlight from the 2024 Fidelity “Plan Sponsor Attitudes” survey shows that planning for retirement is often times a blind spot for employees. In 2024, 82% of plan sponsors agree that participants are saving enough for retirement but only 50% of employees retire on time. Having a great education plan in place is certainly a great first step. Having these plans in place helps give employees timely and relevant information and an opportunity to ask general questions. When seminars are combined with an opportunity to have a one-to-one conversations with their plan’s advisor that amplifies positive retirement savings outcomes. This allows the employees to ask personal questions in a private setting and build a personalized retirement savings plan that meets their needs and goals. Not all employees have the same experience, goals, and career path so having this feature puts that company’s benefits package in a higher tier, especially when trying to attract and retain top talent.

At The Joseph Group, we have fully embraced the concept of “financial wellness” as part of a company’s total benefits program. We believe that when employees are given the opportunity to have personal/confidential conversations around their own retirement plan(s) as well as the opportunity to attend group seminars around financial wellness, they tend to have better retirement outcomes. We have built a robust seminar menu, but we are always happy to customize to meet the needs of the plan sponsor. If you want to enhance your company’s great retirement plan please give us a call and we can share some stories about how we have provided our seminars and personal sessions, as well as their impact on the employees.

Written by Matt Kruckenberg, Manager of Retirement Plan Services. Matt can be reached at 614-907-8639 or matt.kruckenberg@josephgroup.com