Slightly less than 1 in 4 defined contribution plan sponsors have changed their match formulas in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey from investment consultant NEPC.
In the survey of 105 defined contribution plan clients of NEPC, 23% said they have changed the formulas of their matching contributions or suspended them since the pandemic's outbreak earlier this year.
A significant majority, 77%, said they do not plan to change their formulas.
When asked what percentage of plan participants have made a pandemic-related distribution under the provisions of the CARES Act, 72% of respondents said none to 4.9% of participants have made such a distribution, 7% said 5% to 14.9% of their participants, and 2% said 15% to 25% of their participants.
Nineteen percent of respondents said they did not adopt the distribution provision.
When asked whether those distributions would increase in the remainder of 2020, 47% said they expected them to increase somewhat, while 33% said they did not expect them to increase and 2% said they expected to see them increase significantly.
When asked whether their current investment menu is working, 90% said yes. When asked whether the current economic climate has reinforced the need for products that can guarantee some level of income, 68% said yes.
NEPC surveyed 105 corporate, health care, public and union DC plan clients. Half of respondents oversee plans with more than $1 billion in assets.
