Plan Sponsor

The ultimate proof of retirement plan participant success is in the results: whether the participant achieves a financially secure retirement. In the meantime, plan sponsors can look at a variety of metrics to help evaluate and track plan outcomes. The 2025 PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Survey identified several of these metrics, summarized below. While not exhaustive, this overview illustrates the range of lenses sponsors use to gauge employee financial wellness and retirement readiness, beyond analysis of plan lineup investment options and performance.

It’s been widely reported that the marriage rate among Americans has declined sharply in recent decades. According to the Census Bureau, 60.8% of households were headed by married couples in 1980. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 47.1%.

New research has revealed some telling patterns in employee retirement plan contribution rates. According to PLANSPONSOR’s 2025 Participant Survey, nearly 4 in 10 participants said that when choosing their rate they simply stayed with the plan’s default setting. What this means is that the default doesn’t always just start the retirement savings journey. For a significant portion of the workforce, it can end up defining it. The finding reinforces long-held notions around status quo bias and choice overload. That is, when a decision is complex or abstract, many people gravitate toward the path of least resistance. While auto enrollment and other plan design features have been successful in increasing participation, forward-thinking sponsors can consider doing even more.

Access to an advisor tends to improve retirement confidence, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The Retirement Confidence Survey found that 83% of workers with advisory access feel confident about retirement readiness, compared with just 53% of those without. But is that only because those with advisors are more likely to also have accrued greater wealth over time — or will it also hold true for younger workers with smaller portfolios?

The IRS has finalized regulations under SECURE 2.0 that will impact how certain participants save for retirement. Under this change, employees with prior-year FICA wages above $150,000 will no longer be able to make pre-tax catch-up contributions to their 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) plans. Instead, those contributions will have to be made on a Roth, or after-tax, basis. The rule takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026. According to the IRS, the regulations “generally apply to contributions in taxable years,” beginning in 2027. However, it also notes that “the final regulations also permit plans to implement the Roth catch-up requirement for taxable years beginning before 2027 using a reasonable, good faith interpretation of statutory provisions.” The administrative transition period (under Notice 2025-67), which generally ends on Dec. 31, 2025, remains unchanged by the final regulations.

For many American workers over 50, retirement timelines have become a moving target, with increasing numbers now planning to stay employed longer due to economic volatility, market uncertainty, and the rising cost of living. Gen Xers, now in their mid-to-late 40s, 50s, and early 60s, are increasingly anxious about their retirement readiness. With median retirement balances of a 55-year-old at $50,000 and confidence in Social Security eroding, some say they simply can’t afford to stop working.