Retirement benefits should help participants build long-term financial security, yet existing systems often get in the way. Many participants struggle with scattered accounts, high fees, and complex transfers, leading to disengagement and lost savings.

For businesses, these challenges come with real costs. High turnover, administrative work, and hidden fees from inactive accounts add up, limiting the impact of retirement programs. Without a simple transfer option, both participants and employers miss out on the full value of these benefits.

Understanding these challenges is the first step toward making retirement benefits work better for everyone.

Current State of Retirement Plan Transfers

Existing retirement systems often create problems that prevent companies from fully benefiting from their programs. These issues can result in wasted time, lost savings, and frustrated participants.

1. High Costs of Participant Turnover

Participant turnover poses a significant challenge for businesses, costing 3 to 4 times that position's salary, training, and lost productivity. A key driver of turnover is financial insecurity.

Participants uncertain about their retirement savings are more likely to leave for other opportunities. Without a strong retirement benefits program, businesses risk losing valuable talent and incurring high replacement costs.

Addressing this challenge is crucial for reducing turnover and its associated expenses.

2. Hidden Fees from Small, Inactive Accounts

As participants frequently change jobs, many leave behind small, inactive retirement accounts. These accounts can easily go unnoticed but continue to rack up fees, creating a hidden financial burden.

Over time, managing numerous forgotten accounts becomes expensive for companies, adding unnecessary costs to the retirement plan.

3. Time-Intensive Tasks

Moving retirement accounts requires significant time from HR teams. Each transfer can take hours, pulling HR professionals away from more strategic tasks.

This affects overall productivity, creating a significant challenge for organizations looking to optimize their resources.

4. Low Participant Engagement

Retirement benefits only provide value when participants actively engage with them. However, many participants don't complete transfers of old accounts because it takes too much time.

As a result, these participants miss out on potential growth, and the overall effectiveness of the retirement program is limited.

How Better Retirement Benefits Drive Business Success

When companies update their retirement transfer options, they gain measurable benefits that directly impact their business performance. Here's how improved retirement benefits contribute to business success:

Better retention: Financial stress can drive participants to leave their jobs, but offering valuable retirement benefits helps reduce that stress. Organizations with effective retirement programs see turnover rates reduced.

For a company with 750 participants, this reduction could save over $150,000 annually in recruitment and training costs.

Increased engagement and productivity: Participants who feel financially secure are more productive and engaged. Making retirement benefits easier reduces financial stress and encourages participants to focus on their work.

Making transfers simple increases participation and builds participant satisfaction.

Cost savings through consolidation: An efficient transfer option generates cost savings. By consolidating small, inactive accounts, companies can reduce maintenance fees while saving time for HR teams.

These savings help organizations put resources toward more strategic initiatives.

Measuring the ROI of Better Retirement Benefits

To fully understand the impact of making retirement plan transfers easier, businesses should focus on specific, measurable outcomes. Here's how updating retirement benefits shows clear ROI:

Growth in account balances: Consolidating old retirement accounts eliminates redundant fees and gives participants access to better investment opportunities. This results in higher account balances, benefiting both participants and employers. Companies using Manifest have seen an average increase of $13,450 in account balances per participant.

Higher engagement rates: Participants who are actively engaged with their retirement savings contribute more to their plans. Businesses increase engagement by making the transfer simple, ensuring participants grow their savings.

Thus, higher engagement rates mean participants are more likely to stay on track toward their retirement goals.

Reduced administrative costs: Making transfers simple allows HR teams to spend less time on repetitive tasks. This frees up valuable resources, reduces the chance of errors, and helps HR professionals focus on more strategic activities, improving overall efficiency.

Improved retention rates: Participants are less likely to leave organizations that invest in their long-term financial well-being. Strong retirement programs show an employer's commitment to its workforce, improving retention and reducing turnover costs.

How Manifest Adds Measurable Value

Manifest helps participants move their retirement accounts in minutes, offering measurable benefits for participants and employers. Here's how we help you achieve clear ROI:

  • Simple account consolidation: Manifest allows participants to initiate transfers in just 10 minutes, compared to the 8+ hours it takes during a typical 60-day timeline. This approach increases engagement, reduces turnover, and drives growth in account balances. Participants enjoy better control over their savings and a clearer path to growing their retirement wealth.
  • Less work and higher satisfaction: Manifest's simple platform makes transfers easy, building participant satisfaction and increasing retention rates. Participants appreciate the simplicity, building trust and showing the employer's commitment to their long-term financial security.
  • Clear results: Companies using the platform see more engagement, higher participant satisfaction, and cost savings by finding and merging inactive accounts into a current plan. By consolidating accounts quickly, companies reduce administrative costs and improve the financial health of their retirement plans.
  • Secure transfers: Manifest ensures safe, efficient transfers with strong fraud prevention, data protection, and fiduciary compliance with premium security standards. Participants can trust that their retirement funds are handled securely, as Manifest never has access to user funds.

Realizing the ROI of Updated Retirement Benefits

Making retirement benefits better by simplifying the transfer process leads to measurable returns for businesses. Companies improve participant satisfaction and financial performance by reducing turnover costs, cutting administrative work, and increasing participant engagement.

Adding a simple, modern solution like Manifest benefits participants by enhancing their retirement outcomes and strengthening the company's bottom line. The ROI—from higher account balances to lower operational costs—proves that improving retirement plans is a smart investment for lasting success.

Ready to see these benefits for your business? Schedule a demo today to see how Manifest can help deliver clear, measurable results for your retirement program.