U.S. corporations that provide non-matching contributions to non-qualified deferred compensation plans for executives are generally satisfied with those plans, a new survey from the Plan Sponsor Council of America shows.
PSCA's 2019 Non-Qualified Plan Survey shows that 48.2% of surveyed corporate plan executives are satisfied with the non-qualified plan as currently structured, 30.9% are very satisfied and 18.2% are somewhat satisfied. The rest, 2.7%, said they were dissatisfied.
When asked why they offer the non-qualified plan, the highest response at 32.7% was to offer a competitive benefits package, while 22.7% said it is to help eligible employees accumulate assets.
Access to plans is restricted to "top-hat" employees. Of the plans surveyed, 31.3% offer the plan to less than 5% of employees, 22.4% offer it to between 5% and 10% of employees and 23.9% offer it to between 10% and 15% of employees.
According to the survey, 59.5% of plans have both employee and employer contributions, 24.8% have employee contributions only and 15.7% have employer contributions only.
The total level of participation among surveyed plans is 52.4%, the survey says. Of plans that offer both matching and non-matching contributions, 62.8% of eligible employees participate, and of plans that offer only non-matching contributions, 62.5% of eligible employees participate. Of plans that offer no employer contribution, only 29.9% of eligible employees participate.
PSCA surveyed 127 executives at U.S. companies that have an active, account balance non-qualified deferred compensation plan. Of that total, 65 companies have 5,000 or more employees, 27 have between 1,000 and 4,999 employees, 24 have 200 to 999 employees and 11 have 199 or fewer employees.
The survey is available for purchase on PSCA's website.
