DST Adds Auto Services to RK Platform

DST Systems, a Kansas City, Missouri-based recordkeeping services provider, is adding automatic investment selection and automatic deferral to its existing automatic enrollment capabilities.

By year-end, TRAC AutoVantage from DST Systems, Inc., will enable plan sponsors to auto-enroll participants in their defined contribution plans, as well as provide automatic investment selection and automatic deferral increase.

DST’s TRAC retirement recordkeeping platform has supported automatic enrollment of plan participants since 2001, but the new auto-investment selection functionality will complement auto-enrollment by making actively managed lifecycle/target maturity funds available as default options for plan participants, while a new auto-deferral increase capability will enable automatic annual percentage increases in participant pre-tax contributions until the participant reaches a plan-specified salary deferral rate.

“Automatic enrollment by itself is not enough,” said Jim Walsh, vice president DST Systems, in the news release. “It is critical that the auto-default investment provided by the plan sponsor is appropriate for the participant, and that the automated solution actively builds savings.”

Both the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and recent Department of Labor regulations have specifically referenced, and in some ways sanctioned, the adoption of automatic enrollment, contribution acceleration and default investment fund choices.

More information on the company is at http://www.dstsystems.com/.