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Retirement research and thought leadership

Retirement plan design best practices

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Attracting & retaining my workforce

Tailor retirement benefits to help retain specialized talent

Retaining top-tier talent in specialized roles typically requires more than standard benefits. Offering thoughtfully designed, customized retirement plan options is a way to address the unique needs of these professionals, helping ensure they feel valued and motivated to stay.

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Attracting & retaining my workforce

A simple test for your 401(k) plan design: Flip the numbers

When interpreting retirement plan data and statistics, a simple guideline is to flip the numbers to see the full story. This simple test can help employers and financial professionals better understand if plan design changes might be needed.

A woman celebrating her retirement with friends

5 min read

Benefit best practices

Embracing 401(k) auto-enrollment with the budget in mind

Data shows that automatic features, such as automatic (auto) enrollment, auto-increase, and re-enrollment can significantly improve participation rates and help employees save for retirement.1 Explore cost-neutral ways of adding such auto features to your plan design.

 Image of a nurse smiling within a classroom of other nurses.

4 min read

Attracting & retaining my workforce

Enhanced benefits to help reduce nurse turnover

A significant shortage of registered nurses is projected through 2036. As health care administrators face challenges in both hiring and retaining nurses, there are opportunities to offer enhanced employee benefits to reduce nurse turnover.

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5 min read

Benefit best practices

How to make saving in a 401(k) plan hard (to avoid)

Retirement plans today tend to be designed with features so the average person can begin saving with little effort. Yet, it’s seemingly not working for many employees. Instead of easier, do we need to make it harder to avoid?

Photo of a health care worker speaking with two patients

6 min read

Benefit best practices

Retirement plan design consulting for health care organizations

Designing a retirement plan that helps all health care workers save for retirement can be challenging. Using ownership structure and tax status, Marc Howell presents plan designs to help participants save more, pass nondiscrimination testing, and watch the bottom line.

Pension plan insights

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Benefit best practices

Gain actionable insights now (PDF)

Retirement legislation and regulation

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4 min read

Retirement planning

Myths vs. Facts: The state of Social Security

Let’s dispel some of the common myths about Social Security and its funding status. Here we explore the program’s structure, demographic challenges, and possible outcomes if no legislative action is taken soon.

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3 min read

Benefit best practices

SECURE 2.0: The new Roth election for 401(k) employer contributions

In the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 there’s now an option plan sponsors can add allowing participants to elect to receive employer matching and nonelective contributions as Roth contributions. While initially expected to follow the same process as employee Roth contributions, recent IRS guidance reveals a different tax treatment for employer contributions, prompting important considerations for implementation and potential tax impacts for employees.

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Want to learn more?

Check out these helpful resources and materials below. Still have questions? Reach out to your local Principal® representative or support team.