WTW survey finds US employers struggle to measure defined contribution plan retirement readiness

Willis Towers Watson flagged a retirement readiness gap in US defined contribution plans, citing weak measurement of whether workers can retire on time.

A survey of 547 plan sponsors showed 60% have a working readiness definition, split across income replacement (40%), on-time retirement (39%), and confidence (39%).

Employers set near-term priorities on employee experience (69%) and retirement outcomes (63%), raising pressure to shift plans from compliance to results.

Governance changes are building, with 20% considering delegating delivery support to redirect internal effort toward participant outcomes.

AI adoption is highest for analytics (79%) and communications (72%); willingness drops for fiduciary governance (29%) due to privacy concerns (74%).