Products May 16, 2017

Ascensus Announces Enhancements to Digital Experience

The firm says surveys of employers, employees, third-party administrators, and financial advisers informed its digital enhancements.
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Ascensus, a retirement plan and college savings services provider, has launched enhanced digital experiences for its retirement plan clients and their employees. 

Ascensus says it conducted in-depth user research, surveying employers, employees, third-party administrators, and financial advisers to learn what users really wanted from their retirement plan technology. This research indicated that employers visit their retirement plan website to complete specific tasks related to plan activity, such as submitting payroll, running reports, and approving pending items. When employees visit their retirement account website, they want to quickly and easily track their retirement savings progress.

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The main focus of the updates was to centralize these items, streamline interactions, and make it easier for users to find what they need. Key enhancements include:

  • Intuitive home dashboards that highlight popular performance metrics and tools;
  • Easy-to-understand language and visual aids that make information clear and meaningful; and
  • More options for customizing views and taking action.
“We’ve made it even easier for our clients and their employees to find information so they can quickly take action and get back to their day,” says Steve Schweitzer, Ascensus’ senior vice president of marketing, product, and digital. “These enhanced experiences are simple by design—stripping away unnecessary complexity and giving users the tools to efficiently plan for the future.”
Data & Research May 15, 2017

Americans Looking to Work Past Retirement Age

The latest survey from Gallup finds that most U.S. employees prefer to work post-retirement, rather than needing to. 
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A recent Gallup survey found that while most employees plan to continue to work past their retirement age—74% to be exact—most have a desire to work, not because of a need to earn money.

The Gallup Economy and Personal Finance survey found that nearly two in three employed U.S. adults (63%), reported on their plan to work part-time once they hit their retirement age. An 11% of respondents said they would work on a full-time status, and a quarter—an increase from Gallup’s previous surveys—said they would discontinue working at all.

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This year’s survey found that more U.S. employed adults plan to leave working altogether, as two prior versions of Gallup’s poll reported only 18% of adults in 2011 hoped to fully retire, and 22% in 2013.

Of those who plan to work past their retirement age, most reported they will out of preference, rather than out of necessity. In fact, the survey found a decline in employees believing they will need to work past retirement, from 9% in 2013 reporting they “will have to” work full-time, to 5% of respondents today. Similarly, those who said they “will have to” work part-time dropped as well, from 26% to 18%. Instead, employed adults who will work part-time as preference increased, from 34% in 2013 to 44% in 2017.

NEXT: Employed Adults Plan to Retire After 65 

While survey respondents remain unsure about when they will specifically retire, mANY (39%) believe it will be after age 65. Additionally, one in four U.S. employed adults plan to retire exactly at 65, and 29% expect to leave the workforce before that age.

While responses remained quite steady in the last decade, Gallup reported a large turnaround since 1995, when 14% of employees said they expected to retire after 65, and 49% believed they would before that age. Gallup states the flip in percentages can be attributed to the later age Americans started to collect Social Security, at 67, and the financial need that more employees face in working.

Furthermore, Gallup believes the shift with non-retirees reporting a “want to” work post-retirement age rather than a “will have to” suggests the decrease in Americans viewing work as a need, either because of the post-Great Recession economy, or because of an excessively positive mindset concerning retirement finances. 

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