If you currently have a pharmacy 401k or are thinking about starting one, then you must commit to understanding trends in the retirement world. This is one of the primary responsibilities you have as a fiduciary on your retirement plan. If you have an investment advisor or broker that helps with the plan, then they should be able to help you monitor these trends.  If they haven't done this in the past, then you may want to have a meeting with him or her to discuss this.  Your goal should always be to meet or exceed all these benchmarks in your retirement plan.  

Recent trends in the 401k world revolve around getting more of your employees engaged in their retirement future.  They also revolve around getting the participants that are contributing now to contribute more (studies consistently show that Americans are not adequately prepared for retirement).  A recent study highlighted a few of these key trends. 

1. Greater than 70% of eligible employees participate - Do you know the participation level in your pharmacy?  If it is below 70%, then you need to work with an advisor that can increase participation.
2. The average participant contributes more than 5% into the 401k - What is your average contribution?  Your employees should really understand how to use this plan to acheive their retirement goals.  When the education level is improved, the average contribution will go up.  The employees will also begin to see this as a benefit (which should be one of the main reasons to have a plan).
3. 50% of participants contibute the amount needed to get the full company match - How many of your employees are currently doing this?  Education again can help you exceed this benchmark.
4. Only 1 in 5 companies think fee disclosure worked - fee disclosure was the key issue in 2012.  This was supposed to be "magic pill" that would force all investment companies and brokerage firms (and everyone that works for them) to shine the light on how they get compensated. Most companies think all it did was confuse things.  Do your people fully understand all the fees in your pharmacy 401k?
5. Only 1 - 5 companies provide simple financial planning to their participants - many pharmacy employees have never experienced working with a financial planner (for a variety of reasons).  Hiring an advisor that is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Professional can help with this issue.  Do your employees get this basic level of service now?

These are just a few of the main trends in the retirement world today.  Next year, some of these will be the same, and some will be different.  Either way, it is important that keep you ear to the ground when it comes to understanding them.

Our mission is to help you with your pharmacy 401k.  You and your employees work too hard for your money to not be getting the service and advice you deserve. Understanding these key issues is the first part to evaluating if you have the right plan, advisor, or both. We want to see you be successful with this and everything else you do.