Automatic enrollment on the upswing among defined contribution plans

Defined compensation plans have increasingly embraced automatic enrollment over the years, according to a preview of Vanguard Group's How America Saves 2023 report. Last year, 58% of the plans it served as record keeper automatically enrolled participants, up from 32% in 2012. The full report will be available in June.

Data collected by Pensions & Investments for the Top 1,000 survey of the largest U.S. retirement plans show a similar 59% of DC plans that responded offering the feature.

Looking at plans in the P&I survey that offer automatic enrollment, five had assets under $1 billion vs. 10 that didn't have the feature. For those plans with at least $10 billion of assets, 18 had auto enrollment and 13 didn't offer it.