Secure Choice Views Featured in Benefits Magazine

June 08, 2016

An article by investment consultant Kweku Obed, Secure Choice: The Next Chapter in the U.S. Defined Contribution Story, was featured in the June 2016 edition of Benefits Magazine. The article discusses how several states have established or are considering establishing retirement savings plans for workers who lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

One of the newer developments in the defined contribution world, recent legislation has established secure choice programs or plans in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon. Some 20 additional states, including Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Utah and Vermont, are exploring the adoption of secure choice legislation. Fiduciaries of these plans can take advantage of and build on defined contribution plan best practices, such as autoenrollment, autoescalation and use of target-date funds. Priority areas for secure choice fiduciaries to focus on might be negotiation of investment and administrative fees, monitoring savings and allocation trends of various participant demographics and offering guaranteed income options.

Benefits Magazine, the monthly publication of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, covers benefit issues affecting multiemployer, single employer and public employee plan representatives.

Kweku is the chair of the Marquette Associates defined contribution services group. Marquette provides defined contribution consulting services for more than 95 plans with $20 billion in assets, from corporate, public and Taft-Hartley clients to nonprofit and healthcare. Based on more than 20 years of experience and research, the Marquette approach to defined contribution plan stewardship focuses on helping plan sponsors adopt a robust governance and monitoring framework.

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