
Plan Sponsor & Participant Trends During COVID-19

By: Andrew Cate, Account & Project Manager
According to the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), here are the latest trends:
- Most plan sponsors have adopted at least one provision from the CARES Act.
- One in five plan sponsors are still taking a wait-and-see approach before adopting any provisions.
- Less than 10% of plan sponsors have already determined they will not be adopting any provisions from the CARES Act.
- Of the expanded loan and distribution options, most plan sponsors and participants are taking advantage of the Coronavirus related distributions (CRD’s).
- About two-thirds of respondent plans are allowing CRD’s, compared to just half when the PSCA conducted this survey in April.
- 85% of plans with 5,000 or more participants are allowing them, compared with fewer than 40% of plans with less than 200 participants.
- Around 38% of plan sponsors say that an average of 1%-5% of participants have taken advantage of a CRD, while nearly as many have also stated that no participants have utilized a CRD.
- In general, plan sponsors have been significantly more likely to adopt the CRD option over the expanded loan provisions.
- Plan sponsors have been only 50% as likely to adopt the loan provisions compared with CRD provisions.
- Nearly 70% of plan sponsors have stated that loan activity over the last few months has remained relatively unchanged.
- As far as employer contributions, 90% of organizations are making no changes. 5% have suspended matching contributions, while less than 1% has stopped profit sharing contributions. Large organizations are the only respondents to suspend their match, while no small plans have done so.
- Overall, it appears that organizations and participants are staying the course thus far throughout COVID-19.
Click here to view the Plan Sponsor Council of America Survey!