I don't get it.
Redrawing the Route to Retirement
Business Week is trying to claim that "Super 401(k)s", essentially target retirement funds in a 401(k) wrapper, are the newest initiatives for companies to attract & retain workers.
The article's featured company, Devon Energy, is portrayed as being particularly concerned about their aging workforce. The idea seems to be to scrap the pension plan but to entice youngsters to sign an employment contract for their super-sized 401(k) benefits, in which they'll automatically be enrolled. Of course it also drops Devon's future pension liabilities and maybe even reduces the cost of their old 401(k) management.
What I don't understand is the apparent concern about being able to find workers. If Boomers are really [-]spending it faster than they're earning it[/-] feeling bored & unfulfilled by the concept of retirement, then why in the world would a company like Devon have to worry about its workforce? Surely geezers will stay chained to their cubicles without the company having to improve their retirement benefits! And if Gen Y is so [insert one here: materialistic, idealistic, clueless] as to have no plans for retirement, then why go to the effort of coming up with a better 401(k)? Hypothetically their employment decisions would be influenced by the quality of the doughnuts served at the morning meetings or by the foosball tables in the break rooms, not by far-off retirement concerns.
Perhaps people are doing better with their own investments than the media would have us believe. Maybe companies are increasingly concerned about retirement litigation. Or else Fidelity has a really really good 401(k) marketing division.
No one seems to be selling Super 401(k)s as a power tool for early retirement...
Redrawing the Route to Retirement
Business Week is trying to claim that "Super 401(k)s", essentially target retirement funds in a 401(k) wrapper, are the newest initiatives for companies to attract & retain workers.
The article's featured company, Devon Energy, is portrayed as being particularly concerned about their aging workforce. The idea seems to be to scrap the pension plan but to entice youngsters to sign an employment contract for their super-sized 401(k) benefits, in which they'll automatically be enrolled. Of course it also drops Devon's future pension liabilities and maybe even reduces the cost of their old 401(k) management.
What I don't understand is the apparent concern about being able to find workers. If Boomers are really [-]spending it faster than they're earning it[/-] feeling bored & unfulfilled by the concept of retirement, then why in the world would a company like Devon have to worry about its workforce? Surely geezers will stay chained to their cubicles without the company having to improve their retirement benefits! And if Gen Y is so [insert one here: materialistic, idealistic, clueless] as to have no plans for retirement, then why go to the effort of coming up with a better 401(k)? Hypothetically their employment decisions would be influenced by the quality of the doughnuts served at the morning meetings or by the foosball tables in the break rooms, not by far-off retirement concerns.
Perhaps people are doing better with their own investments than the media would have us believe. Maybe companies are increasingly concerned about retirement litigation. Or else Fidelity has a really really good 401(k) marketing division.
No one seems to be selling Super 401(k)s as a power tool for early retirement...