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Sacramento-area 401(k) plan participants, in Smart Investor's experience, have a lot in common with average Americans. At least that's true in terms of average Americans as portrayed by the Employee Benefit Research Institute's (EBRI) 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey fact sheet, "Age Comparisons Among Workers."

"The closer people are to retirement, the more likely they are to take steps to insure they have a secure retirement," writes EBRI. Statistics show that the percentage of workers who have saved for retirement rises with each decade of age, except that the rates are roughly comparable for ages 35–44 and 45–55.

However, Smart Investor is concerned to see that almost half (48%) of all workers have saved less than $10,000. Of course, it's not surprising that this statistic rises—to 57%—for ages 25–34.

More than 70% of Americans older than 55 have saved less than $250,000, according to the EBRI report. Of these, 31% have saved less than $10,000. That's a scary number.

Retirement Savings Among Americans Age 55 or Older

These numbers are a good reminder of why your 401(k) plan is so important for your employees' retirement security.

If you have questions about boosting your employees' retirement readiness or any aspect of 401(k) plan investing, Smart Investor would be happy to help you.

Looking for a registered investment advisor serving Sacramento, Roseville, and Stockton, CA? Smart Investor serves all three cities from our base in Rocklin, CA. Contact us at 916-435-2100.

Plan sponsors and participants both benefit when sponsors automate features of their 401(k) plans. As you might expect, auto-enrollment boosts employee participation. This is particularly effective with black and Hispanic employees, according to a study conducted by the Vanguard Group.

401(k) Auto-Enrollment: Participation May Rise by 30%

Who wouldn't like to boost plan enrollment by 30%?

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Californians lead the nation in many desirable statistics. But we're not doing such a hot job of setting up 401(k) or other retirement savings plans at small employers. More than 20 states had higher rates of plan sponsorship than California in 2009, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis in Private Pensions: Better Agency Coordination Could Help Small Employers Address Challenges to Plan Sponsorship, (March 2012).

California vs. the Nation

California's small employers fell into the next-to-lowest level of five levels of retirement savings plan sponsorship across the U.S. Only 13% of our state's small employers offered plans. Small employers were defined as companies with 100 or fewer employees.

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Saving is essential for your plan participants' comfortable retirement. But how can you get them to boost their savings to reach their retirement goals? Smart Investor suggests you encourage them to calculate their retirement needs. Individuals who perform calculations tend to aim for higher savings, according to "The 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey: Job Insecurity, Debt Weigh on Retirement Confidence, Savings," Issue Brief (March 2012) published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

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Retirement plan sponsors often worrying that an independent fiduciary's services will be expensive. This is true especially if they're used to dealing with brokers, where the costs to participants were hidden. In fact, there's often no cost to the company for hiring an independent fiduciary.

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Smart Investor is a unique wealth management firm based in Rocklin, California.  We are an independent, fee-only registered investment advisor serving entrepreneurs, small business owners, and retirement plan sponsors and participants. More

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For our clients, ‘wealth’ is about more than money.  It is your ability to do what you want, when you want and how you want.  Our responsibility is to help you get there. 

What We Do

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