AUTO ENROLLMENT

A 401(k) Feature that Can Help Improve Employee Participation Rates

Automatic enrollment is a 401(k) plan feature that automatically enrolls your eligible employees into your 401(k) plan and gets them started with contributing a portion of their salary at a preset rate.

There are 3 different types of automatic enrollment arrangements

Basic Automatic Contribution Arrangement (ACA)

When your employees become eligible to participate in 
the 401(k) plan, they will be automatically enrolled at preset contribution rates. Your workers will have the opportunity to opt out or change their contribution rates.

Eligible Automatic Contribution Arrangement (EACA)

EACA is similar to ACA, but a key difference is that employees may request a refund of their deferral within the first 90 days.

Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement (QACA)

QACA has basic auto enrollment features, and requires both an annual employer contribution and an increase in the employee contribution rate for each year the employee participates. A QACA 401(k) plan is exempt from most annual compliance testing.

Benefits that You’ll Want to Take Advantage Of

• Higher 401(k) Participation. Automatic enrollment can drastically increase employee participation.
• Better Compliance Testing Results. With increased participation, compliance testing is easier to pass.
• Increased Contributions For Highly-Compensated Employees. Passing compliance testing enables key employees to maximize their contributions.
• Improve Retirement Readiness. Help all employees, especially those employees who aren’t currently contributing to their retirement.

Let us Take the Guesswork Out of Automatic Enrollment for Your 401(k)

We can help you understand if adding the automatic enrollment feature is right for your plan, and determine which specific automatic arrangement is best for your business. Plus, as a 3(38) Investment Manager, Fisher Investments can reduce your legal liability by providing a qualified default investment alternative in our platform that is age-appropriate, diversified, and becomes less volatile over time for your employees that don’t want to make decisions regarding their 401(k) investments.