Press Release

New Digital Benchmarking Research Identifies Fidelity, Empower, TIAA and T. Rowe Price as Top for Retirement Plan Participant Digital Experience

Issued by Corporate Insight

Sept. 17, 2023

NEW YORK -- New benchmarking research from Corporate Insight identifies Fidelity, Empower, TIAA and T. Rowe Price as the top performers across desktop and mobile defined contribution (DC) plan participant experiences. The 2023 DC Plan Participant Website and Mobile Experience Benchmark reports evaluate 18 leading recordkeepers across 230 desktop and mobile attributes, showing how firms stack up against one another in design, functionality and usability. The reports found that users across platforms put an especially high value on easy access to account information, and that desktop capabilities continue to outpace those available on mobile apps.

“Fidelity’s design, navigation and account information across digital platforms place it #1 in both these reports,” says Kara Sostar, Retirement Research Manager at Corporate Insight. “In terms of the other top finishers, TIAA is the leader in website transaction capabilities, Empower has the best account information across both website and mobile platforms, and T. Rowe Price has the easiest app to navigate.”

While leaders in the individual categories correlate closely with the overall leaders, several other firms were noteworthy category-level standouts:

• In the Website Experience Benchmark, American Funds PlanPremier ranked second in Account Information, Principal earned third place in Transactions, and Corebridge Financial and Voya tied for third in Profile & Settings
• In the Mobile Experience Benchmark, American Funds PlanPremier ranked in the top three for Account Information and Transactions, Merrill scored in the top three for Design & Navigation and Transactions, and Principal earned top three finishes in Transactions and Support

Other takeaways from the reports include:

• Plan participants want intuitive access to their account balance—respondents ranked “account balance information” and “ease of finding information” as the two most important capabilities in both desktop and mobile
• Recordkeeper scores reflect a focus on account information; the highest average category score came in Account Information, while the lowest were in Profile & Settings and Support
• Fidelity, TIAA and Empower finished first, second and third in desktop; in mobile, Fidelity, Empower and T. Rowe Price finished first, second and third

Categories analyzed in the DC Plan Participant Experience Benchmark reports include:

• Account Information
• Design & Navigation
• Planning & Research
• Profile & Settings
• Support
• Transactions

Recordkeepers featured include:

• Alight Solutions
• American Funds PlanPremier
• CUNA Mutual Group
• Charles Schwab
• Corebridge Financial
• Empower
• Equitable
• Fidelity
• John Hancock
• Lincoln Financial Group
• Merrill
• Nationwide
• Principal
• T. Rowe Price
• TIAA
• Transamerica Retirement Solutions
• Vanguard
• Voya Financial

Editor's note: This press release has been issued by the company named above, not BenefitsLink. Reliance on information in this press release might be prudent only after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by BenefitsLink.