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Designing Better Pension Benefits Statements: Current Status, Best Practices and Insights from the Field of Judgment and Decisionmaking (PDF)

"Currently, the information provided in pension benefits statements vary widely by plan provider as well as by the nature of benefits offered. The inconsistency could occur partly because recommended best practices for, and empirical studies that test, the design and content of statements vary widely in the literature. Furthermore, little is known on how people think about saving for retirement.... [This paper begins] by reviewing best practices and recommendations provided from the trade literature. Next, we describe the content and design of a cross section of statements that are currently being used by plan providers. Finally, we review the academic literature on individuals' understanding of, and information needs related to, pension benefits statements."

Evaluation of Tools and Metrics to Support Employer Selection of Health Plans (PDF)

91 pages. Excerpt: "The report describes a conceptual framework of health plan features, evaluates the current availability of quality measures and decision tools to employers, and describes how employers make decisions when choosing a health plan. This report will be of interest to national and state policymakers, employers and employer coalitions, consumer advocacy organizations, measures developers and health researchers, and others with responsibilities related to achieving better transparency on the quality that different health plans provide and facilitate employer decisionmaking." [Editor's note: The report is dated 2013, but it was first announced and posted online by DOL on March 12, 2014.]

Do Financial Advisers Influence Savings Behavior? (PDF)

27 pages. "While there is limited evidence that suggests that advisers have a direct impact on their clients' savings behaviors, there is evidence to suggest that individuals who receive advice tend to be more likely to have a plan for retirement, more likely to feel confident about their retirement preparations, and more likely to have retirement goals. However ... much of this work is correlational and unable to establish whether advisers are causing improvements in retirement-planning outcomes, especially over the long term. Moreover, research examining the impact of workplace retirement seminars suggests that some of the same benefits might be conferred through less personalized interactions."

Workplace Wellness Programs: Services Offered, Participation, and Incentives (PDF)

"The goal of this report was to leverage existing data to explore patterns of wellness program availability, employers' use of incentives, and program participation and utilization among employees. This report will be of interest to national and state policymakers, employers and wellness program vendors, employer and employee advocacy organizations, health researchers, and others with responsibilities related to designing, implementing, participating in, and monitoring workplace wellness programs."