Escalent
Escalent
Cogent Syndicated

DC Participant Planscape asks DC participants the questions your firm can’t and offers firms a unique understanding of what drives participant contribution and investment behavior. The report benchmarks the top plan providers on key satisfaction drivers and brand engagement metrics, determines what sparks changes in plan contribution levels, outlines opportunities to strengthen retirement readiness via financial wellness programs, advice offerings and provider education, and identifies the firms best positioned to capture rollover assets.

This year, we’ve refreshed our rollover IRA section with a variety of new questions and are excited to introduce Evoke™, Escalent’s proprietary qualitative research tool. Grounded in behavioral science and 32 scientifically validated emotional categories, Evoke translates visual choice into rich emotional insight, helping uncover how participants feel about the idea of opening a rollover IRA.

Value

The report will enable subscribers to:

Boost Participant Satisfaction
Uncover the features, offerings and retirement tools participants want from providers to maximize satisfaction and retain assets

Identify New Opportunities
Develop successful cross-sell programs and validate participants’ desire for additional contact from plan providers

Attract Rollover Dollars
Identify the factors participants consider when selecting a rollover IRA provider to keep current-plan assets in-house and attract new rollover dollars

Methodology

  • 4,000 DC plan participants actively contributing to a DC plan and/or having at least $5,000 in a former employer’s DC plan
  • Web-based survey
  • Statistically representative sampling using US census data to mirror the engaged participant universe by gender, region, age, education and household income

Participant Segments

  • Generation (including Gen Zers)
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Income type (salary, hourly, freelance/gig) 

Areas of Inquiry

Plan Provider Satisfaction and Loyalty

  • Satisfaction with provider relationship across key attributes
  • Drivers of satisfaction
  • Current and desired contact
  • Provider websites: log-in rates, drivers of and barriers to use and ways to boost visits
  • Loyalty to current plan provider

Participant Contribution Behavior

  • Time contributing to an ESRP
  • Use of automatic plan features
  • Ways to boost current contribution levels 
  • Reasons for increasing or decreasing contribution
  • Investment options used within ESRP
  • Interest in specific types of alternatives
  • Interest in SECURE 2.0 Act offerings

Participant Mindset, Financial Wellness and Retirement Readiness

  • Use of AI (e.g., ChatGPT) to inform decision-making
  • Top retirement planning concerns
  • Appeal, use and barriers to use of financial wellness components
  • Interest in/use of employer-sponsored investment advice
  • Confidence in ability to reach retirement savings goal and convert savings into income
  • Interest in retirement-income product features
  • Most desirable provider offerings to support the withdrawal phase

Cross-Sell/Rollover Opportunities

  • Most effective communication method
  • Rollover IRA provider brand consideration
  • Drivers of rollover IRA consideration
  • Perceptions of leading firms in 19 critical brand attributes
  • Likelihood to leave assets with former plan provider

Subscription Details

Publication Date: August 2026
Deliverables:

  • Detailed report including a summary of findings and strategic implications
  • Strategy session and presentation designed to deliver actionable results and facilitate strategic planning
  • Custom data cuts and survey work by senior analysts

Investment: $40,000

2026 DCPP Fact Sheet-Front
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