SURVEY SAYS: Retirement Plan Mobile Technology

We asked NewsDash readers whether their participants have access to plan data or transaction capabilities on mobile devices and what kind of usage they are seeing?

Seventy percent of respondents work in a plan sponsor role, 3.3% are advisers/consultants, and 26.7% are TPAs/recordkeepers/investment managers.

We asked the plan providers if they offer mobile plan access for participants, and half said they offer both plan information and certain transactions. Slightly more than 21% offer plan information only, and 28.6% do not offer mobile plan access for participants.

We asked plan sponsors if their providers offer mobile plan access for participants, and 56% said their providers offer both plan information and certain transactions, and 20% said their providers offer plan information only. However, 12% said their provider do not offer mobile plan access for participants, and another 12% indicated they do not know.

The survey results indicated there is a lack of tracking for participant usage of mobile capabilities, or at least, if the providers are tracking it, they may not be sharing that information with plan sponsors. Asked if participants are using mobile devices for plan information or transactions, 40% of responding readers don’t know, while one-third said no, and 26.7% indicated participants are using mobile technology.

We also asked if there is one age demographic using mobile devices for plan information or transactions more than others, and two-thirds of responding readers said they don’t know. Slightly more than 23% said no one age demographic is using mobile technology more than others, but 10% indicated younger participants were (3.3% chose ages 18 to 25 and 6.7% chose ages 26 to 35.

Many of the comments made by those who chose to do so also indicated plan sponsors are not getting statistics about mobile technology usage. While a few respondents lamented about the lack of “face time” and potential for increased cybersecurity risk as a result of mobile technology, most said it is a good thing and the wave of the future, even though participant adoption is low currently. Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who pointed out that: “From a personal perspective, I like the idea of having access from my phone for those inevitable moments when I knew I was supposed to do reallocate my account but realized when away from my laptop. Just another resource to take away the ‘I don’t have time’ excuse.”

Verbatim 

Current functionality for the mobile web is as follows: Participants may enroll (if they have not already) and change contribution rates. They also have view-only access to the following information: · Investment allocation · Daily prices and updated performance · Personal rate of return · Loan status. Unfortunately, we do not have a mechanism to track traffic to the web that specifically comes via a mobile device. We can track who comes to the site and what pages are visited, but cannot discern what device they are using to access the site.                    

In general, our participants have low usage of electronic access to their accounts but it is available.

We were very excited when Fidelity rolled out their app with enhanced features. I hadn't realized until now that we haven't heard of any stats for our plans. I'll definitely be asking. From a personal perspective, I like the idea of having access from my phone for those inevitable moments when I knew I was supposed to do reallocate my account but realized when away from my laptop. Just another resource to take away the "I don't have time" excuse.

We just switched to a plan that offers mobile access, so I don't yet know who is using it.

This has only been an option for about 1 year in our plans.

Been around the block once or twice and been in this game for a long time. Now, as I'm on my way to retirement, I maintain that staring into a screen cannot compare to face-to-face. Not preachin' mind you, just making an observation as my human position will be replaced by an electronic friend.

You can enroll online, look up account info and change contribution rate. However, no reports are available breaking mobile device usage from internet usage. and no reports are available with age breakdown.

It's the wave of the future! Get on the bandwagon, people!

Our recordkeeper is John Hancock. We are glad an app is available for participants even though less than half utilize it. More capability was added to the mobile app at the end of 2015 which is great.

Our current plan provider is lacking in the mobile technology front, but assures us that they are making improvements this year. It would be nice to have a more interactive application than what is currently offered - account review only.

Our provider only recently (within the last 6 months) introduced mobile access (information only). We plan to highlight it later this quarter in an effort to let participants know they know have mobile access if they want it.

Mobile enrollment is also a key new feature in the industry

it's the latest shiny toy in the industry's toy box, the new entry in the arms race that seems determined to try and eliminate the (all?) competition. I suppose adoption is inevitable, but we've not (yet) seen any reason to do so. Just one more vulnerable attack point for identity - and actual financial - theft.