NU Online News Service, March 29, 3:55 p.m. – Executives at the Lincoln Alliance Program say this is a great year for companies that offer retirement plans with long investment menus to wrestle cases away from competitors with short menus.
The Lincoln program, a unit of Lincoln National Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., has won 31 large and midsize retirement accounts this year, according to John Arant, a senior vice president at Lincoln.
At most of the employers, "there's already an existing plan," Arant says.
A few employers might be switching because of unrealistic expectations about how well a 401(k) plan, a 457 plan or a 403(b) account can perform in a terrible market.
But, in most cases, Arant says, employers are really looking for plans that offer up-to-date administrative tools, solid participant education programs, and, perhaps most important, a wide choice of investment options.
Marketing psychology experts say giving consumers too much choice might lead to more confusion than happiness.
