Southwest Pilots 401K Ranked Number 1
 

CORRECTED - List of top retirement plans has Southwest pilots flying high | Reuters



Dec 20 (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines pilots are now free to retire about the country. That's because they have the nation's best 401(k) plan.
Brightscope, which rates and ranks 401(k)s, released its third annual yearend rating of the 30 best large plans today. The Southwest Airlines pilots' plan took top honors this year, rising two spots compared with last year's list.
Brightscope's ranking system crunches more than 200 data points to simulate a 401(k) plan's effectiveness at getting plan participants to retirement, and its annual top 30 list serves as a cautionary reminder that all 401(k) plans are not created equal.
If you doubt it, look up your own plan (for free) at the company's website, which tracks nearly 50,000 plans and spans more than 30 million workers. There you will find a simple numerical score, based on analysis of the annual audit reports all plans file with federal regulators, and data provided by plan sponsors and record-keepers. You'll find tremendous variation in key success factors, including plan cost, employer generosity and the quality of investment choices.
This year's top 30 list underscores some positive trends in workplace retirement plans as companies rebuild from the crash of 2008-2009. The average Brightscope score among the top 30 increased three-quarters of a percentage point, and plan improvements made it more difficult to keep a spot on the list, says Mike Alfred, Brightscope's CEO and co-founder.
Seven plans are new to the list, mainly reflecting the rising competitiveness among large employers. The newcomers include Wellington Management Co., Deloitte, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., BASF , Ernst & Young, Google and Vanguard. Meanwhile, IBM's 401k Plus Plan, which Brightscope singles out as a best-practices plan, slipped ten slots to number 22 - even though its overall rating only slipped to 86.28 from 86.66 a year earlier. "Their plan didn't really get worse," Alfred says. "The field is just getting much more competitive."
Brightscope's findings come in the wake of other reports indicating movement among plan sponsors to improve 401(k) plans. A recent survey by The Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) found an unprecedented shakeup of plans, with just under 64 percent reporting that they had changed their investment line up in the past year.
The pace of change likely will accelerate over the next few years as plan participants receive and digest new quarterly statements that reveal more information on plan fees and investments. The new statements are mandated under U.S. Department of Labor rules that take effect next year aimed at improving transparency for participants and plan sponsors.
Fees already are falling among the largest plans, Brightscope reports. The 2011 top 30 had average total plan cost of 0.61 percent, five basis points lower than a year ago. By contrast, average total plan cost for all Brightscope-rated plans was 1.55 percent, and 0.87 percent for all plans with assets over $100 million.
The biggest single factor that won plans a spot on this year's top 30 list was funding levels - whether savings by participants or matching contributions. "Across all these plans, you see employees saving more than average and employers who are more generous than average," Alfred says.
That said, it should come as no surprise that a full 50 percent of the companies on this year's list are in the healthy energy and pharmaceutical industries; another 17 percent were financial services companies.
More broadly, employers are restoring matching contributions that were cut at the bottom of the economic crisis. The PSCA survey found that half of plans that suspended their matching contribution in the last four years have fully restored it; among all plans, 66.7 percent have maintained their matching contribution.
For Southwest's pilots, the number-one ranking means their plan "gets average plan participants to retirement faster than any other 401(k) plan in the country," says Bryan Lorenz, Brightscope's vice president of data. "A participation rate of nearly 100 percent as well as the highest combination of company generosity and salary deferrals contributed to this outcome."
That must explain why the airline's pilots have that legendary in-flight sense of humor.
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Another reason to hate Southwest! :D

This should be titled the SWAPA 401K. The pilots 401K is different then the rest of the companies. Same match, but better funds and self directed accounts.

On the rankings, only the pilot 401K is the top one, the 401K for the other people in the company is not as competitive. Southwest Airlines Pilots' Retirement Savings Plan scores 91, Southwest Airlines Co. 401k Plan scores 74

what is Southwests 401K plan? How much is the match?

Here's where the rankings are from: BrightScope | 401k Plan Ratings, Financial Advisor Pages, Better Data for Financial Decisions

BrightScope Blog

scroll down

I know SWA's is number-1 but they show UAL as number 5

so.....:rolleyes:

3 of the top 30 rated plans are Pilot 401(k) plans. SWA, United and Fedex. Interesting.

Where is Delta Pilot's 401K plan listed?

It likely wont be ranked highly since there is no "match" portion. the article is ranking "401k plans" not overall retirement plan.

Southwest offers a VERY high match, and as such you get a lot of guys who will contribute the max to get the max match.
(I'm sure the investment options are very good too, SWA has always been good at the active bennies).

The Delta plan is a DC plan there is no match to the 401k, since they get 13%(14% in Jan 1.) with no contribution required.
The DAL plan may have a couple other issues that would affect the score, I don't know about the effects on the score. Regardless, DAL does need to improve the pilot retirement in the next round.