There has been a good deal of discussion on success measures for auto-enrollment, and we've previously established that by adding auto-enrollment a plan sponsor can immediately make its plan appear to have 100% participation. But is that enough?

Consider the basic fact that participation in a 401(k) plan is only one hurdle in making a retirement plan successful. Is a 3% contribution rate good? It may or may not be. In our recent informal online survey, the results indicated that the most popular rates, as shown in the pie chart below, tend to be those that are just enough to maximize the employer matching contribution, followed by 10% of salary