Statements Press 401(k) Investors to Contribute More

Retirement plan providers are issuing personal 401(k) statements projecting how much monthly income investors can expect to have in retirement to encourage higher contributions. Vanguard, T.Rowe Price, Principal Financial, Fidelity Investments, Putnam Investments and New York Life Investment Management are among those that are providing the customized statements, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Vanguard's statements take into account participants' age and income, current account balance and portfolio makeup to project how much they can expect to have in retirement. Principal Financial aggregates all retirement accounts investors have with the firm and combines that total with expected Social Security benefits to project total monthly income. New York Life goes a step further to tell investors how much monthly income they will need to achieve 70% of their current salary, and how their current account balance and savings rate stacks up against that target.

Both Fidelity and Putnam have seen investors increase their 401(k) contributions since they began offering personalized statements. At Fidelity, which provides investors with annual personalized statements, more than 4% of investors nearly doubled their contributions to an average of 9.6% from 5.4%. At Putnam, between 6% and 8% of investors increased their savings rates.

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Money Management Executive
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