Even though 401(k) plans have proven to be advantageous, so many Americans aren’t using this powerful tool to its fullest capacity. This week on unsuitable on Rea Radio, Angie Isakson, a qualified 401(k) administrator and manager on the benefit plan services team at Rea & Associates, joins Mark Van Benschoten to talk about “The Secrets to Readying Your Employees For Retirement.” Over the next 20 minutes, listeners will become familiar with the differences between defined contribution plans and defined benefit plan and how employee contributions and actuarial formulas can result in retirement planning success. So, what does success look like? Reflecting on her years of expertise, Angie defines a successful retirement plan as one in which the majority of participants are on track to retire at the time they had planned. Unfortunately, based on these standards, less than 25 percent of those at retirement age are actually ready to do so. According to Angie, 401(k) plans were never intended to weigh so heavily as a large contributing percentage of Americans’ retirement incomes. Rather, she argues, defined benefit plans were designed to fill this role. But even today defined contribution plans have fallen behind in readying the American workforce for retirement. The retirement industry, along with financial and business advisors, have a responsibility to educate plan sponsors and participants on how they can improve participation, perhaps by identifying and using better benchmarks and tracking the number of participants and how much those participants are referring towards their retirement. Listen to this episode to: • Learn Angie’s recommended participation rate, contribution rate and matching employer contribution. • Discover some of the key advantages to offering a robust retirement plan, including tax deductions, benefits generated by income deferrals and a top-notch workforce capable of driving improved productivity and ongoing innovation. • Find out why continuous education of employees and ongoing assessment of your company’s retirement plan is key to ensuring ongoing plan success. • Learn how to demonstrate the impact compounding has on a retirement savings account. Want to learn more about retirement planning and the various tools and strategies you could be taking advantage of? We’ve set up a resources page for this episode at http://www.reacpa.com/episode-48-the-secrets-to-readying-your-employees-for-retirement/ for some great articles, videos and past podcast episodes. You can also listen to past episodes of unsuitable on Rea Radio and access past resources pages at http://www.reacpa.com. If you liked this episode, let us know! You can like it, share it or comment on it! We’re not picky 