SECURE 2.0: How Retirement Plan Providers Can Simplify Life for Sponsors
SECURE 2.0 continues to change the way people save for retirement, the way that sponsors offer plans, and the way that providers support both. The goals of the new law are laudable. But the timeframes are short—and the requirements can be confusing.
Knowing this, providers, whether brokers, advisors, third-party administrators, or recordkeepers play an important role in helping both plan sponsors and participants understand all the moving parts and how each affects them. But with every challenge comes an opportunity. For you, this is an opportunity to clarify changes, control chaos, and connect the dots.
Following initial looks into the basics of SECURE 2.0 and the provisions changing the way retirement savings works, we’re changing lanes, looking to explore the areas where sponsors and participants need you most, the opportunities you have to make their life easier, and the ways you can drive a bit of extra revenue along the way.
Opportunity 1: Become the Go-To Resource for Compliance
As a provider within the retirement services ecosystem, you’re the entity that a company trusts to advise, administrate, or otherwise orchestrate a plan sponsor’s retirement offerings. You are the one in the weeds. And you’re the one who’s spent the time learning about the nuances and complexities that exist.
That makes you the go-to entity for those with questions about doing things right.
Whatever your role, you are the one who can—and should—be the first that they turn to when they have a question about any question they may have. And as new provisions arise or plan sponsors are exposed to ones taking effect recently, things might get overwhelming.
Plan providers have the opportunity to reinforce their role as their first source of advice for all things SECURE 2.0 and retirement plans as a whole. The opportunity to become the compliance guru is a significant one, and providers have a wide range of tools and tactics to deliver:
Deliver Important Regulatory Updates and Implications
The law might be finalized, but the regulatory side of the equation continues to evolve. Departments continue to clarify. New documents are constantly getting submitted for comment and entering the Federal Register.
For current clients, it’s all about tailored messaging. What specifically can they expect and how will this seemingly random DOL or IRS document or amendment affect the plans they offer?
After all, there are a lot of retroactive changes or ones with short implementation windows—and a lot of value in translating and communicating actionable information.
Ensure Sponsors are Audit Ready
If we haven’t said it enough already, there are a lot of moving parts within SECURE 2.0. And sponsors have a lot of things to focus on that exist outside of retirement. And this might mean they’re not truly and deeply focused on something like… keeping up with past employees’ retirement accounts.
Part of your role—or at least your opportunity—lies in compliance. And there are a variety of ways to deliver. One opportunity comes in the form of developing tools to monitor compliance and risks that a plan sponsor may be exposed to. Another could be in the form of mock audits, in which you work with a plan sponsor to identify gaps and correct issues—long before they become problems.
Provide Fiduciary Assistance
Fiduciary requirements for plan sponsors have long been a challenge, but SECURE 2.0 introduces certain changes that could affect the individual or individuals responsible for managing the plans. Though the main goal—to act in the best interest of participants—remains the same, the new provisions require new tactics.
And to help plan sponsor fiduciaries to better serve participants, plan providers have an opportunity to create resources, playbooks, and oversight as things evolve.
Opportunity 2: Streamline Processes, Discover and Deliver Efficiencies
Administrative efficiency is a cornerstone of any good retirement plan, and can often be a challenge for plan sponsors. SECURE 2.0 certainly doesn’t make it any easier for them. But no matter how challenging it may be, it does present an opportunity for your clients to revisit their processes—and for you to deliver real business value.
Simplify and Centralize Recordkeeping and Reporting
Some of the most pressing changes for plan sponsors involves their role in maintaining accurate, timely data, tracking new information, and meeting increasingly complex reporting requirements.
To deliver, providers have the opportunity to:
Help plan sponsors to centralize and maintain data.
Offer automated reporting solutions tailored to the unique needs of the plan sponsor.
Create tools for sponsors offering new options (student loan match, ESAs) to deliver the right information to the right people.
Facilitate Onboarding and Offboarding
It’s rare for someone to measure their job tenure in decades anymore. And as the average time someone spends at a position continues to decrease, the number of previous employers (and associated retirement accounts) naturally goes up. Unfortunately for them—and each of their previous employers—this can result in an extremely fragmented portfolio of accounts.
And this can become dangerous—for them and for you. Retirement accounts can be forgotten, lost, or mismanaged, resulting in long-term risk and complexity for everyone involved. But in that time that it’s still optional, you have an opportunity to stand out.
To address this, providers have the opportunity to help sponsors rein in accounts for former employees by facilitating the offboarding process.
Teach new hires if they should migrate and how to do so.
Help facilitate the offboarding process by fitting into a sponsor’s systems and helping participants know their options.
Go above and beyond to keep track of accounts to prevent them from becoming lost.
Opportunity 3: Enhance Engagement
Automatically enrolling participants might be a great way to increase participation in a sponsor’s retirement plan, but a 3 percent contribution is by no means a viable long-term strategy. Even the one percent annual increase isn’t going to deliver long-term utility, as many employees will have left long before they reach a healthy contribution level.
And this is another area where providers can drive value for their clients and themselves—by reducing the barriers to understanding, providing actionable communications, and ultimately driving meaningful participation.
Educate Participants and Plan Sponsors
A client’s HR department might not have an unbelievably deep understanding of SECURE 2.0. But the average participant knows even less. And with all the moving parts, unclear communication on something like an annual contribution can lead to confusion—or worse, noncompliance.
In turn, there is a significant opportunity in helping both entities to get more from being able to understand the new provisions. From HR training guides or webinars to customized communications packages able to be sent by plan sponsors, you have the power to drive understanding and engagement among participants.
Simplify Outreach
The word template will be coming up a lot as we continue through the series—but it’ll come up for good reason. After all, templates are the secret to communications without headaches. And they’re also one of the best ways to help your plan sponsor clients drive participant understanding, activity, and engagement.
But it’s not simply the use of a form letter. There’s potential confusion and opportunity to provide clarity at so many points—from automatic enrollment to newly created milestones to new programs. After all, a participant probably isn’t going to know about an ESA or student loan contribution match unless someone mentions it. And a good communication template can make all the difference.
Through automation and simplification, a plan provider can deliver a whole lot of value with little effort. Personalized, flexible templates created with ease will deliver… if you have the ability to offer them.
Deliver On Their Terms
Omnichannel is the name of the game. And it has been for some time now. Not everyone wants a letter. Not everyone wants an email. Not everyone wants a text. Some want all three. And the best way to meet the needs and expectations of a participant (and the sponsor) is to offer the option that works best for the recipient.
By centralizing messaging and offering a wide range of opportunities for a participant to interact with their account, you can help them better understand all the moving parts that go into their retirement benefits package.
Eliminate Their Stress without Creating More for Yourself: Template Management by Sepire
Strong provider/sponsor relationships are built on trust—and execution. As 2025 kicks off, providers have the opportunity to capture new business, satisfy existing clients, and create meaningful connections with participants, plan sponsors, and partners.
But with every great advancement comes a challenge. Plan providers will need to ask themselves how they can do more to deliver without ending up creating an unbearable workload for themselves. And this is especially true when it comes to communication.
Participants and sponsors want relevant, understandable, and useful information. Boilerplate copy no longer will cut it. But creating new messages—both to meet SECURE 2.0 requirements and to deliver—can create
And that’s where template management by Sepire can help. Part of our larger omnichannel communications solution, our goal is to reduce the amount of manual effort, inaccuracy, and stress that you face in delivering retirement plan communications. Whether you need something easily personalized, cobranded, or automated, we make it happen.
Want to trigger RMD programs as someone approaches 73 or branch catch-up communications based on provided income? We got it. Need to help new employees understand what’s happening or recently departed ones know their options? We make it easy.
With experience in secure communications done easily, we’re here to help you connect with your clients on their terms. Get to know more about who we are, how we help, and what we can do for you by dropping us a line.