We estimate that our enrollment rate across all plans is in the range of 9% to 10%. This rate varies widely across plan providers according to the involvement of the provider in promoting managed retirement accounts to plan sponsors (employers). Some providers embrace managed retirement accounts and actively educate their plan sponsors about the benefits of participation, whereas others do little more than simply making the option available in order to remain competitive with other plan providers.

We are taking several steps to increase enrollment in managed retirement accounts. We are working with a few of our key provider clients to host digital workshops (webinars with Q&A) and to develop direct marketing materials that explain the benefits of managed retirement accounts to eligible plan participants. For other key providers, we are encouraging the use of managed retirement accounts as the plan’s QDIA (qualified default investment alternative) for plan participants who do not select other investment options. Finally, we have recently launched a service for one of our provider clients that defaults younger participants into target date funds as their QDIA, and older participants with more complex retirement needs into managed retirement accounts as their QDIA. We believe that all of these efforts can drive increased enrollment in our managed retirement accounts.

Because of the ongoing shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans, more employees in the future will not be retiring with a guaranteed pension annuity. We expect that managed retirement accounts will gain traction because employees in defined contribution plans will need help in both accumulating and withdrawing from retirement savings in the future. The bottom line is that we believe that we already have significant distribution into the retirement plan space, and while we always look to enhance it, a focus on making our current offering even more compelling for retirement savers will likely lead to further adoption, and by extension, growth for the business.