I recently wrote about the Alliance Bernstein 2006 research that indicated that plan sponsors want to "keep it simple". What that translates to when plan sponsors are shopping for service providers is the ability to provide administrative services on-line.
New research by Spectrem Group confirms that automated plan administration functions, such as electronic payroll submission, electronic funds transfer and data downloads, are rapidly becoming must-have capabilities for plan sponsors of all sizes. And because of the competitive nature of the retirement plan market, "must-haves" are "can-haves" even for the smallest plan sponsor.
