People who engage with their retirement savings are more likely to opt out of unsuitable defaults. We use cluster analysis of matched survey and administrative data to identify groups of pension plan members that are alike in their attitudes toward retirement saving. We find that engaged and disengaged members segregate into groups based on their interest and trust. Group membership in turn helps predict plan engagement, as proxied by nondefault choices. Specifically, engagement is stronger among interested groups. Trust, however, has a more complex relationship with engagement, particularly as it interacts with interest. While members with low interest and high trust are less likely to engage (e.g., by not checking plan performance), less trusting members engage more (e.g., by actively choosing asset allocations). As interest and trust successfully determine group membership, and ultimately engagement, pension plan providers should address members' diverse needs and circumstances with personalized approaches.
Retirement saving is an area now jam-packed with defaults meant to address delayed or absent decision making. Yet, getting individuals engaged with retirement saving decisions is critical to avoid unsuitable one-size-fits-all defaults and optimise accumulated wealth. We apply a market-segmentation approach to the problem based on two attitudinal motivators of behavioral engagement: trust and interest.Our research sheds new light on why and how engagement occurs. Engagement grows with interest, yet engagement can also be motivated by low levels of trust. However, when interest is lacking, trust is related to reducing monitoring behaviour. This increases the vulnerability of individuals to exploitation exposing the "dark side of trust" (Gargiulo and Ertug 2006).Based on this interaction of trust and interest and how it feeds into engagement, a personalised approach by pension plan providers that addresses members' diverse needs and means in terms of time, knowledge, and financial resources seems desirable.
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