Employers and policymakers are faced with important questions that need to be answered: “How is the current retirement system performing? And is it meeting the needs of workers today?”
The 2022 Icon Retirement Trends Study addresses these questions directly. Watch below for more information about what employees want in their retirement benefit.
Much has been written about the financial stress and anxiety the Covid-19 pandemic caused amongst the US workforce. And a recent study conducted by the Icon Retirement Innovation Research Center confirms that most Americans (63%) still feel stressed about their finances. But this phenomenon is not new. It was not created by the pandemic, just exacerbated by it. Instead, a lack of financial literacy and a workforce that largely lacks access to workplace retirement plans has steadily built the wave of financial stress Americans are experiencing today. Luckily, there is something employers can do about it, and Icon is here to help.
In 2021, FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) published a report on financial anxiety, stress and literacy in American workers. It collected its data between 2018 and 2020, when the economy was in expansion and the U.S. was experiencing record-low unemployment. Despite these favorable economic conditions, the study found results similar to Icon’s: that 60% of respondents felt anxious when thinking about their finances. More than half weren’t saving money and 20% had accumulated debt.
So during a period when individuals should have been able to improve their financial situation, more than half were not able to do so. Why? There are many factors that both FINRA and Icon found that correlated with problematic financial behaviors like lack of savings. But it’s a lack of financial literacy and access to a workplace retirement plan that are the two hurdles most people couldn’t overcome despite being completely solvable.
In terms of financial literacy, FINRA defined financial literacy as being able to demonstrate a basic understanding of financial terms like interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. In their study, they found that 63% of financially illiterate people reported feeling financially anxious vs. 51% of financially literate respondents that reported feeling that way.
The FINRA study also found a link between low financial literacy and problematic financial behaviors like overdrawing their checking account and accruing expensive credit card debt.
Employers can provide workers opportunities to save, starting with a retirement plan, and increase workers’ financial knowledge and awareness in the process. Why start with a retirement plan? Those feeling financially anxious are less likely to plan for retirement and need access to a plan through work. And retirement planning is a strong indicator of wealth and a good indicator of how savvy people are about how to use their resources.
Icon found that ⅔ of workers don’t trust their own financial decision making. So they look to their employers to help them save for retirement. If these workers are among the 81 million who lack access to a workplace retirement plan, they’re not likely to feel comfortable investing on their own.
The current 401k-dominant retirement system has created a wealth gap between those whose employer offers this benefit and encourages saving, and those who don’t have access to a retirement plan. The result is generational financial stress and illiteracy get passed down, making it very difficult for people to improve their financial situation.
The retirement system as it exists today is broken. It only covers W2 workers who have been at their company for a certain period of time and each 401k plan is an island unto its own. Meaning, 401ks can’t be connected even if they’re owned by the same person. The results are:
We need a new system to save for retirement and that’s exactly what Icon has built. Icon’s plan is a retirement savings benefit that enables employers to offer every worker, regardless of classification, a way to achieve financial stability. Our fees are transparent and the same whether you have five employees or 500. Our plans are also portable. This means workers never lose access to their retirement savings. When they leave your company, we simply “unplug” them from your system and “plug” them back into that of their next employer.
Employees want to save. They want to feel like they have more control over their finances and their future. Most also need their employer’s help in doing so.
What employees don’t want is to navigate a complicated and expensive system. They don’t want to have to read (and understand) complicated plan documents in order to discern how much they’re paying in fees and how they’re supposed to roll old accounts into new ones (or if they’re even allowed to do it). They want saving for retirement to be easy so they can focus on their actual job.
We’ve created a retirement benefit that allows them to do just that. Changing the tide of financial anxiety and illiteracy and lack of savings will take time and continuous effort. But with Icon, employers can help their workers invest in their futures and by doing so, show their workers the company is invested in them.
If you’re interested in learning more about Icon and how we can help you reduce your employees’ financial stress, reach out to a retirement specialist today.
Whether you’re a California-based company with 5 or more eligible employees, or you’re a company with 5 or more California-based eligible employees, June 30th was an important deadline for you. By this date, by law, you were supposed to have either enrolled your eligible employees in the CalSavers retirement plan or sponsored your own plan.
If you didn’t, you might be subject to fines. If you did, and you went the CalSavers route, you might be running into some user-satisfaction issues. Icon can help you deal with both.
If you missed the June 30 deadline and didn’t set up your eligible employees with a retirement plan, we have two pieces of good news. First, you still have time before fines are assessed. In fact, you have 90 days from the deadline (September 28th) to get your retirement plan up and running before you’ll have to pay any fines.
Second, Icon is an easy and cost-effective way to comply with the CalSavers mandate, we can get you signed up and onboarded in minutes. We are a payroll IRA that links with your payroll provider to take employees’ contributions directly from their paychecks. Since we’re an automatic enrollment payroll deduct IRA and not a 401k, there’s no financial reporting or fiduciary responsibility on your part and we take on the administrative duties of employee onboarding and communication and plan maintenance and administration. All you need to do is provide your payroll information and approve employees’ contributions.
If you choose not to sign your employees up for a retirement plan within 90 days of the June 30 deadline, you will be subject to fines of $250/eligible employee. If, at 180 days after the June 30 deadline, you still haven’t provided your employees with a way to save for retirement, fines of $500/eligible employee will be levied against your company.
Beyond the financial penalties, you might find it difficult to attract and retain employees unless you can offer them a retirement savings benefit. The consultancy firm, WTW, recently surveyed employers of various sizes, across several industries, and found that 55% of the companies expected to have retention issues in the next two years. And 36% were planning to use their retirement benefits package as a way to attract and retain talent. So if you want to compete, you will need a retirement plan that employees will actually want to use.
Icon is that plan. With low fees, and easy plan management, Icon’s retirement plan is user friendly and customizable so every worker can find what they’re looking for. On top of that, employees own their Icon plan and can take it with them wherever they go. They never lose access to it, retaining the ability to both contribute to and manage their retirement savings plan no matter where they work.
CalSavers has helped get more California workers saving for retirement, and that’s a good thing. But it’s far from the ideal retirement plan. Many employers and employees alike have found it to be a challenging system to navigate and inflexible. CalSavers also charges asset-based fees of between 0.825% and 0.95%, whereas Icon’s average fund fee is 0.07%. Lower fees help your employees grow their savings faster.
So if you signed up for CalSavers but you’re unsatisfied with your choice, we have good news. You can unenroll your employees from CalSavers and roll their accounts into an Icon retirement savings plan. Icon makes account management easy with a clean and informative dashboard. We also make it easy to rollover old accounts so your employees can start saving more, faster.
If you’re interested in rolling your CalSavers accounts into Icon retirement savings plans, reach out to a representative today. We’ll walk you through the process.
To be successful, companies need healthy, focused, talented, and productive workers. They need to retain those workers so they’re not constantly recruiting and training new people, and suffering lost productivity due to losing institutional knowledge. In order to attract and retain the talent, companies need to be successful and give employees the support they need. According to a recent survey by PwC, support means caring about employees’ financial well being.
PwC surveyed more than 3,000 workers across various industries and found that 56% were stressed about their finances and 1 in 4 had less than $1,000 saved for retirement. The workers who were stressed about finances reported using up to 3 hours of work time or more to deal with their financial worries, 18% said it had negatively affected their productivity at work and 15% said it had negatively affected their attendance. On top of that, 76% of the financially stressed employees said they were attracted to another company that cared more about their financial well being.
Many workers are struggling and one way employers can help them feel in control of their financial future is to offer a retirement plan that makes saving easy. Since Icon charges low fees, employees will see their savings grow faster, which can give them a sense of security. Icon’s plan is easy to understand and use and we offer support to both plan participants and employers so everyone has the opportunity to be successful in reaching their financial goals.
Icon’s 2022 small business survey found that 92% of employees contributing to a 401k want an additional tax-advantaged way to save for the future. That means to remain competitive as an employer, you must provide a comprehensive benefits package that enables all of your workers, from W2 to 1099, a way to achieve financial security beyond traditional offerings. Now, that’s possible with Icon’s Companion Plan.
Icon Companion is the new, smart way to help your employees build financial security in addition to their 401k plan. It’s easy to set up, integrates with payroll, and is a fraction of the cost of a 401k. Why? Because Icon leverages technology to automate administrative work and keep costs low, allowing us to pass those savings on to our customers.
Icon’s Companion Plan works similarly to your 401k in that contributions are automatically deducted from worker’s paychecks and invested in a retirement account.
There are some big advantages with Icon: no federal reporting requirement, no discrimination testing, and no rebalancing needed because it’s set up as a smart, online payroll IRA. All employers need to do is provide payroll information and approve their employees’ elections. Icon handles the rest.
In fact, Icon is a turnkey plan that includes full-service recordkeeping, employee onboarding, portfolio management, and compliance. And because it’s portable, you’ll never have an orphaned account. When an employee leaves the company, they retain access to their Icon account and can continue saving. No rollovers needed.
Employers gain a cost-effective recruitment and retainment tool that doesn’t just sound good, it actually provides employees with a real benefit. Icon’s Companion Plan can be offered to 1099 workers, so if you’re a company that relies on independent contractors, it can help you keep this valuable talent happy. You’re also helping your employees reach financial goals and security, which can lower financial stress, leading to happier, more productive workers.
Employees gain another tax-advantaged way to save for their financial futures that can help them build financial security. Our low-cost portfolios are tailored to the individual employee and easy to manage from the dashboard. Icon’s portability feature is also a huge benefit because employees will never lose access to their account nor will they have to complete a confusing or expensive rollover.
Icon’s Companion Plan is an easy, cost-effective way to stay competitive in a tight labor market while providing your employees with a retirement plan that is a true benefit. And it helps all your employees (W2 and 1099) to become more financially secure so they’re less likely to experience financial-related stress, leading to a happier, more productive workforce. Icon’s Companion Plan is the retirement plan for the modern workforce.
For the past few years, the ground has constantly shifted under employers’ feet. There have been new regulations regarding retirement benefits and employee classification, and The Great Resignation has permanently altered workplace culture and what employees expect from the companies they work for.
Regardless of whether you were ahead of the curve or are currently playing catch-up, one thing is clear: doing things the same way as they were done before isn’t going to cut it. Not in the present environment and in the future.
So how do you come up with a benefits solution that meets the current moment and future-proofs your company from changes that are to come? You offer your employees a payroll IRA like Icon.
IRA stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement (or Account) and it is a tax-advantaged retirement savings account. There are two types of IRAs: traditional and roth. Traditional IRAs function similarly to a 401k in that contributions are tax-deductible in year they’re made, the deposits can be used to purchase a wide range of investments and once the retiree begins to take disbursements from their IRA, they pay the appropriate income taxes on the withdrawn amount.
Roth IRAs function a little differently. First, in order to contribute to a Roth IRA, you must satisfy certain income requirements depending on how you file your taxes. Second, contributions to Roth IRAs are not tax deductible in the year they’re made, but once you begin to withdraw them in retirement, you won’t pay income taxes on that money.
All contributions to retirement savings accounts grow tax-free.
As we said above, there are some similarities between these two accounts:
| 401k | Icon IRA | |
| Portable? | No | Yes |
| Who’s Eligible? | W-2 Employees | All Employees |
| Access to Investments? | Limited by Company | Access to Everything |
| Fiduciary Responsibility? | Employer Maintains | Icon Maintains |
| Filing Requirements? | Form 5500 | None |
| Discrimination Testing? | Required Annually | None |
| Annual Contribution Limit? | $20,500 (2022) | $6,000 (2022) |
| Catch-Up Contributions for 50+ | $6,500 | $1,000 |
| Employer Matching Allowed | Yes | No |
First, staying compliant. In 2019, California passed legislation (AB 5) that expanded its definition of what an “employee” was vs. an independent contractor. This, combined with the state’s retirement plan mandate has forced many California businesses from small start-ups to large, publicly traded companies to rethink how they manage their relationship with their employees without running afoul of employment law.
California isn’t alone in passing a retirement savings mandate– 14 other states either have passed, or are considering, similar legislation and the U.S. Senate is currently reviewing a bill the House of Representatives passed last year that would federally expand the definition of “employee”.
If you offer employees a 401k, you will need to stay abreast of who is legally considered an employee (might be different for state vs. federal), to make sure you’re in compliance with employment law (and not opening yourself up to expensive lawsuits). Or, you could offer employees an Icon IRA. Our plan can be offered to all employees (W-2, 1099, full-time or part-time) and it complies with all state retirement savings mandates so you’re covered in the case the legal landscape changes under your feet.
Second, retaining talent. It’s no secret that many companies rely on independent contractors. It was published recently that even Google retains more independent contractors than actual employees. And startups, especially those that are pre-profit rely on independent contractors in order to grow and innovate.
But independent contractors are often functioning like employees– working alongside actual employees for the same number of hours (or more) and subject to the same performance standards and oversight. They just don’t receive the benefits. If you are like the many companies that rely heavily on your independent contractors, offering them an Icon retirement savings plan can help them feel valued and a part of the company. Which will make it harder for another employer to poach them.
Even your full time employees who are eligible for a 401k will benefit from an Icon retirement savings plan. Our plans are portable, so they never lose access to their account, they can choose from 100’s of investments, our app makes plan management easy, and our low, flat fee makes it easier for them to grow their savings faster.
If you’re looking for a way to future-proof your benefits package, consider an Icon IRA. It’s the most cost-effective way to offer a retirement savings plan that complies with all major state mandates and doesn’t send you scrambling when employee classifications change.
As has been widely publicized lately, there is a looming retirement savings crisis in America. Only 40% of Americans have any savings at all in retirement accounts and the median American worker has nothing saved for retirement. As an attempt to help solve this crisis, the House of Representatives passed the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 (aka the SECURE 2.0 Act), building upon the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (aka the SECURE Act) of 2019. The legislation is currently in committee in the Senate.
The first and perhaps the most consequential change this legislation makes is making it mandatory that employers auto-enroll their employees in a retirement savings plan. The default settings are:
-Participants can change these settings at any time but they must be prompted to do so.
-This only applies to businesses with over 10 employees who have been in business for at least 3 years. There are also exemptions for church and government plans.
There are some things about this legislation to applaud. Allowing employers to provide 401k contribution matching for student loan payments can benefit both employer and employee. The employee receives a retirement benefit for paying their student loans, and by providing this matching it could make it easier for the employer to pass non-discrimination tests as long as those paying off their student loans aren’t highly compensated employees.
Creating a database that enables people to locate retirement accounts they had with previous employers could potentially cut down on the number of abandoned accounts and lead to greater retirement savings for individuals. And shortening the time in which part-time employees become eligible for the employer-sponsored retirement benefit and providing small businesses an incentive to offer employees a retirement savings plan could result in increased access to retirement savings accounts.
On the surface, these are all good things. But they don’t solve the structural problems inherent in the 401k industry and some of the provisions laid out in the SECURE 2.0 Act aren’t going to benefit those that need it most.
While the SECURE 2.0 Act attempts to solve many facets of the looming retirement crisis in America, it doesn’t do enough to increase access to and the usability of retirement savings accounts for most Americans.
Icon’s payroll IRA is a portable, low-cost (for both plan participants and employers) retirement benefits solution that is easy to set and use. There’s no fiduciary risk to employers and employees always have access to their money.
Behavioral Finance might sound a little esoteric and perhaps like it’s a subject for grad school. But the question this scientific field tries to answer is actually quite simple: why do investors, even experienced ones, often make misguided choices? Icon uses the principles of Behavioral Finance to ensure its plan participants are successful in saving for retirement.
Behavioral Finance is a field of study that was developed in the 1980’s and 1990’s in response to what experts thought were unpredictable moves in the stock market. At the time, the Efficient Market Hypothesis held that the stock market moves in predictable, rational ways because everyone has access to the same public information (and those that have access to insider information aren’t allowed to trade on said information).
But the stock market often moves in irregular or volatile ways so researchers wanted to find out why.
In short, Behavioral Finance has found that the markets don’t always move in predictable, rational ways, because the people who are operating within those markets (i.e. the investors) are not always rational and predictable. Instead, they often let outside psychological influences affect their investment decisions.
Some of the phenomena researchers have found include:
Reasons for this behavior include several biases:
Icon asks you a few questions to understand your financial situation. Then, we use an algorithm to determine the assets your portfolio should include. We use an algorithm to rebalance your portfolio regularly to ensure you always own the asset mix that makes sense for your financial goals and timeline.
Why do we use an algorithm? Because an algorithm doesn’t have psychological biases. It doesn’t favor stocks with tickers at the beginning of the alphabet or have hindsight bias.
We also don’t use jargon to influence your decisions. And we show gains and losses in true dollar amounts instead of percentages because it’s an easier way for people to understand the state of their portfolio.
At Icon, our goal is to help you save for retirement successfully. We don’t make money off of the sale of specific assets nor are we motivated by having as many assets under management as possible. We are simply motivated by closing the retirement savings gap because we believe everyone deserves a financially secure future.
If you offer your employees an employer-sponsored retirement plan in the form of a 401k, a pension or another type of plan covered under ERISA, you’re coming up on your Form 5500 deadline. Unless you have a one-participant plan (either a sole proprietor or partnership plan) with total assets of $250,000 or less, filing the Form 5500 is a non-negotiable requirement to offer a 401k or similar plan. And it will likely require that you allocate resources (time, money and talent) to ensure it’s completed properly.
Form 5500 is a form issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) on which employers who offer 401ks and other ERISA-covered plans report on their plan’s performance, financial condition, operations and management. These results are then distributed to plan participants.
The federal government uses Form 5500 in two ways. First, it helps to ensure that employer-sponsored plans are being operated and managed in a way that is in the best interest of the plan participants (i.e. the employer is fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities). Second, the DOL, Congress and other federal agencies and private organizations use it to inform them on employee benefits, tax and economic trends and policies.
Your deadline to file your Form 5500 is seven months after the end of the plan year. If your retirement plan operates on a calendar year, then your deadline is July 31st. Penalties for missing the deadline are $250 a day up to a maximum penalty of $150,000.
The Form 5500 is one of the many annual administrative duties employers must fulfill when they offer a 401k or similar type of retirement savings plan. But what if we told you there was another option that didn’t require filing a Form 5500, or any other form of documentation with the IRS or Department of Labor (unless you’re offering a plan to comply with a state mandate)? There is. It’s an Icon payroll deduction IRA.
Even the IRS will tell you that, “a payroll deduction IRA is probably the simplest retirement arrangement that a business can have.” This is why:
Icon leverages technology to administer our plan so we can offer flat, transparent pricing. We handle all employee onboarding, communication and investment management. We offer customer support in real-time and provide employers with a streamlined dashboard for the minimal tasks they need to perform and employees with an app for easy plan management.