Laurie Meyer, a long-time SHRM member discusses auto enrollment.
Auto enrollment can cause a bit of fear among plan participants who report that they are mostly fearful of the unknown. Laurie states that at 3% (her basic, default auto-enroll deferral amount for new employees) participants can get a sense of a “starting point” for a deferral amount.
After 20 years Laurie reports that the most common question for new employees is “how much should I defer” or “what is the usual amount to defer?”. Not being able to advise employees on deferral amounts, Laurie says the auto-enroll let’s participants make their own decision from the 3% “benchmark”.
