Participation rates are 40% higher in auto-enrollment plans compared to non-auto-enrollment plans. View auto-solutions trends including auto-enrollment, default deferral rates and auto-increase.

1. Reference Point April 2016
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T. Rowe Price Defined Contribution Plan Data As of December 31, 2015
Want to learn more? Contact your T. Rowe Price representative.
Auto Solutions
Insights
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 provided fiduciary cover for
plans using automatic enrollment and escalation. Ten years have
gone by, and the change to the 401(k) landscape has certainly
been affected.
AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET
PARTICIPANTS STARTED
Participants must enroll to make contributions to their retirement
plan account. Auto-enrollment is an effective way to encourage
participants to save—participation in auto-enrolled plans is 40
percentage points higher than in plans without that feature.
Since smaller plans with assets under $5 million may be less
likely to use auto-enrollment due to perceived costs, their
participation rates are much lower. The value of auto-enrollment
is clearly demonstrated when looking at participants under the
age of 30. When auto-enrolled, participants in the under-20
years and 20- to 29-year year age groups participate at
significantly higher percentages (76% and 84%, respectively)
than those that are not auto-enrolled (3% and 30%, respectively).
These participants—often referred to as the millennial
generation—are eager to save. Results from our proprietary
study on millennials told us that 74% are more comfortable
saving and investing extra money than spending it.1
Employers
should take advantage of this positive savings perspective and
explore the effect that auto-enrollment and auto-increase may
have on their participants’ ability to save.
HIGHER DEFAULT RATES AND AUTO-INCREASE
MAXIMIZE SAVINGS POTENTIAL
While enrollment rates are up sharply, most participants are not
contributing enough to prepare for a comfortable retirement.
Industry experts suggest saving 15% of your income for
retirement. As a result, companies are rethinking the traditional
3% default rate—in fact, 30.2% of companies adopted a 6% or
higher default deferral rate by the end of 2015. This represents
a fundamental shift and acknowledgement that 3% default
deferral rates will not provide enough savings for an adequate
retirement. The industry can support this trend by encouraging
sponsors to adopt higher default rates as emphasis swings
from simply enrolling participants to actively encouraging a 15%
savings rate.
A consistent comment we receive when we survey clients
is a desire for their participants to save more. Since many
participants are reluctant to increase their deferral rate—only
38% did in 2015—sponsors should consider incorporating
auto-increase into their plans. This feature automatically raises
deferral rates in small increments each year to guide participants
toward the suggested 15% rate—something participants are
more likely to tolerate. Results show that most participants will
not opt out of this increase. Plan Sponsors should consider
offering auto-increase as an opt-out feature since this produces
a six-times-higher adoption rate than using opt in.
1
T. Rowe Price Millennial Retirement Saving and Spending Study, 2015.
POTENTIAL STRATEGIES
¢¢
Add auto-enrollment
to get participants
saving early
¢¢
Maximize participants’
savings potential through
opt-out auto-increase up
to 15%

2. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT DESIGN TRENDSNo.1
Default auto-enrollment rate 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
1% 1.6% 1.8% 1.8% 2.0% 2.4%
2% 7.3 6.3 6.3 6.3 5.3
3% 49.7 47.3 45.6 42.9 38.2
4% 13.7 14.2 15.0 15.0 13.0
5% 10.8 11.7 10.8 10.1 10.9
6% or more 16.9 18.7 20.4 23.6 30.2
Auto-enrollment feature not offered 60.2 56.1 52.8 48.7 48.9
Default auto-increase rate
1% 63.5% 66.3% 69.0% 69.6% 73.6%
2% 36.5 33.8 31.0 30.4 26.4
Auto-increase feature not offered 36.7 36.5 32.2 30.0 30.7
Default investment
Target-date investment 95.5% 95.5% 95.5% 96.0% 95.9%
Other investment* 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.0 4.1
*Other investments could include balanced, money market or stable value funds.
Note: Results for auto-enrollment and auto-increase are based on those plans that offer that feature.
DEFAULT DEFERRAL RATE FOR AUTO-ENROLLMENT PLANSNo.2
0
10
20
30
40%
8%7%6%5%4%3%2%1%
2.4%
5.3%
38.2%
13.0%
10.9%
29.0%
0.3% 0.9%
DEFAULT AUTO-ENROLLMENT RATE
2015 saw a positive trend toward more employers
setting default deferral rate at 6% versus 3%.

3. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
PARTICIPANT ADOPTION RATE BASED ON AUTO-INCREASE ADOPTION METHODNo.4
We continue to see significantly higher use of auto-
increase by participants when they are asked to opt out,
a 54-percentage-point improvement in use.
0
20
40
60
80%
201520142013
69%
10%
66%
11%
65%
11%
Opt-Out, Adoption Method Used
Opt-In, Adoption Method Used
PERCENTAGE OF PLANS ADOPTING AUTO-INCREASE AND AUTO-ENROLLMENTNo.3
20
40
60
80%
20152014201320122011
63.3% 63.5%
67.8%
70.0% 69.3%
39.8%
43.9%
47.2%
51.3% 51.1%
The percentage of eligible plans using auto-increase
and auto-enrollment remained steady in 2015 at 69.3%
and 51.1%, respectively.
Auto-Increase
Auto-Enrollment

4. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
PARTICIPATION RATESNo.5
20
40
60
80%
201520142013201220112010200920082007
70.2%
60.9%
73.2%
66.1%
73.5%
68.1%
72.9%
68.3%
72.6%
66.2%
74.5%
68.0%
75.8%
69.5%
76.0%
69.9%
74.0%
66.5%
PARTICIPATION COMPARISON BETWEEN AUTO-ENROLLMENT AND NON-AUTO-ENROLLMENT PLANSNo.6
0
20
40
60
80
100%
201520142013
87%
52%
86%
49%
88%
48%
Participation rates continue to be strongly tied to the
adoption of auto-enrollment; auto-enrollment plans saw
a full 40 points higher participation rate than non-auto-
enrollment plans.
Plan Weighted
Participant Weighted
Auto-Enrollment Plans
Non-Auto-Enrollment Plans

5. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
PARTICIPATION RATE COMPARISON BY AGE—AUTO-ENROLLMENT PLANS VS. NON-AUTO-ENROLLMENT PLANSNo.7
Auto-Enrollment Plans Rate
Non-Auto-Enrollment Plans Rate
0
20
40
60
80
100%
2015 TRP
Total
70+
Years
65–69
Years
60–64
Years
50–59
Years
40–49
Years
30–39
Years
20–29
Years
20
Years
75.7%
3.1%
84.4%
30.4%
88.5%
51.4%
89.5%
55.0%
90.2%
56.7%
89.1%
54.3%
85.7%
46.3%
74.6%
30.1%
87.8%
47.6%
Age groups in their prime working years (ages 30
to 60) who are in auto-enrolled plans are showing
a greater than 30-percentage-points increase in
the participation rate compared with the same age
groups in non-auto-enrolled plans.

6. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
TOTAL PARTICIPATION RATE (AUTO-ENROLLMENT AND NON-AUTO-ENROLLMENT PLANS)—BY AGENo.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80%
2015 TRP
Total
70+
Years
65–69
Years
60–64
Years
50–59
Years
40–49
Years
30–39
Years
20–29
Years
20
Years
31.6
31.8
54.4
54.0
56.6
70.8
70.6
70.0
73.9
73.3
71.8
75.4
74.9
72.7
74.0
73.9
70.0
68.8
68.5
62.3
53.5
53.6
45.2
68.3
67.8
66.9
36.7%
2013
2014
2015
Overall participation rates dropped in 2015 to 66.9%,
possibly due to concerns over contributing money in
an unstable market environment.

7. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
PARTICIPATION RATES BREAKDOWN—BY PLAN ASSETSNo.9
0
20
40
60
80
100%
$1B+$200M–$1B$50M–$200M$5M–$50M$5M
43.9% 44.9%
73.1%
59.8%
79.7%
60.3%
83.0%
69.8%
79.7%
68.8%
PARTICIPATION RATES BREAKDOWN—BY PLAN PARTICIPANT COUNTNo.10
0
20
40
60
80%
5K1K–5K1K
71.4%
66.2%
78.4%
65.8%
77.6%
66.8%
Plan Weighted
Participant Weighted
Plan Weighted
Participant Weighted

8. Reference Point Auto Solutions
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April 2016
Unless otherwise noted, all data included in this report are drawn from the following
sources: Data are based on the large-market, full-service universe—TRP Total—of
T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services, Inc., retirement plans (401(k) and 457 plans),
consisting of 662 plans and over 1.6 million participants.
Auto-enrollment, auto-increase and default deferral rate results are based on participants
of large-market, full-service 401(k) and 457 plans who were automatically enrolled in
their plan during 2015. Trend results are based on findings at the calendar year-end
from 2007–2015.
Participation rates by age are participant weighted (total number of participants
divided by the total number eligible to participate). Participant-weighted year-over-year
participation rate averages are calculated by dividing the number of participants by
the number eligible to participate. The plan-weighted year-over-year participation rate
average is the sum of plan level averages divided by the number of plans.
The data are based on any participants eligible to make contributions during the period.
Participation results are based on all contributions. Participation rates by age are
participant weighted (total number of participants divided by the total number eligible
to participate).
Methodology
C1BINN44Z
2016-AX-17643