Nearly half of small businesses said they may have to reduce or stop matching contributions.
While the majority of small businesses do not think the economy will affect their ability to offer a 401(k) retirement plan, 44 percent said they may have to reduce or stop matching employee contributions, according to a survey released Monday, June 8, by Nationwide Financial Services of Columbus, Ohio.
A small company was defined as having five to 250 employees. To qualify for the survey, respondents had to have offered a 401(k) retirement plan for at least one year and have between $500,000 and $10 million in retirement plan assets.
Some 31 percent of respondents ranked providing employees with investment education as their top concern; 29 percent selected fiduciary and legal responsibilities as the top concern; and 21 percent chose the selection and monitoring of retirement plan investment options.
A full 74 percent said that they valued an investment advisor’s ability to help them meet the legal responsibilities associated with offering a retirement plan.
The survey of 401 respondents was conducted by telephone interviews between December and March.
Filed by Sue Asci of Investment News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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