Research highlights major digital enhancements across plan sponsor websites with focus on plan health tools and administration
NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2025 -- Corporate Insight (CI), the leading provider of competitive intelligence and customer experience research to the financial services industry, today announced the release of its Retirement Plan Monitor – Institutional Year in Review report. The comprehensive analysis examines the major digital enhancements that recordkeepers made to their sponsor sites over the past year across seven categories of site functionality.
"This year, firms enacted high-impact changes across a range of site areas that significantly bolstered functionality and overall usability," said Kara Sostar, research manager at CI. "While the most significant updates occurred in traditional focus areas like plan health tools and reporting dashboards, we saw meaningful improvements across all seven categories of sponsor site functionality. Voya Financial Group led the way with nine changes in 2024, while TIAA made the most high-impact enhancements."
The annual report highlights key trends that shaped retirement plan sponsor digital experiences in 2024:
- Making plan health metrics digestible and actionable – T. Rowe Price and TIAA refreshed their plan health tools with modernized designs that balance robust data with streamlined views, helping sponsors easily understand complex plan information.
- Updating login processes – Continuing a trend from 2023, three firms (Voya, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price) enhanced security by updating their login interfaces and authentication processes, with T. Rowe Price notably introducing a unique passkey system.
- Enhancing site design with focus on homepages – Multiple firms prioritized design improvements, with TIAA and Charles Schwab completely overhauling their homepages, while other firms like Principal, T. Rowe Price, and Voya updated specific site elements.
- Expanding plan administration capabilities – Empower launched a case management tool for common administrative requests, while TIAA introduced a sleek Payroll Center with straightforward interfaces for managing payroll items.
"Our ongoing plan sponsor research shows that 83% of respondents rate the sponsor website as either 'very important' or 'extremely important' for managing their plans," says Sostar. "The focus on enhancing these capabilities in 2024 demonstrates that recordkeepers are listening to sponsors' needs and working to deliver more intuitive digital experiences."
"By looking at the seven categories in this report—Participant Data & Management, Plan Information, Design & Navigation, Plan Administration, Profile & Settings, Reporting and Support—we were able to see where recordkeepers focused their efforts last year," adds Sostar. "These categories will also guide our research in the coming year, in particular our benchmarking of these platforms in the upcoming Plan Sponsor Experience Benchmark."
The Year in Review report includes detailed profiles of 11 retirement plan providers:
- Charles Schwab
- Empower
- Fidelity
- Lincoln Financial Group
- Principal
- T. Rowe Price
- TIAA
- Transamerica
- TruStage
- Vanguard
- Voya Financial Group
About Corporate Insight
Corporate Insight (CI) delivers competitive intelligence, user experience research and consulting services to the nation's leading financial services, insurance and healthcare organizations. As the recognized industry leader in customer experience research for over 30 years, our best-in-class research platform and unique approach of analyzing the actual customer experience helps organizations advance their competitive position in the marketplace.
About Retirement Plan Monitor – Institutional
CI's Retirement Plan Monitor - Institutional is a subscription-based competitive intelligence research service focused on the digital plan sponsor experience. The service gives subscribers survey-backed, first-hand insights into the authenticated site experience of retirement plan recordkeepers. Retirement Plan Monitor - Institutional provides customer experience analysis reports, competitor capability tracking, and analyst support to show subscribers new digital best practices and key industry trends as they emerge.
For inquiries or to interview with an analyst, contact:
Patrick Flood
646-876-7535
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