September 21, 2026

Retirement providers turn to digital engagement to retain assets

Retirement providers are spending more money and resources on digital engagement as competition for participant assets grows.

The trend comes as rollover assets remain a significant opportunity across the retirement and wealth-management industries.

According to LIMRA, the IRA rollover market exceeds $800 billion annually. Research from Broadridge projects annual rollover activity could reach $1.15 trillion by 2030. Broadridge also reported that roughly 60 million workers change employers each year.

At the same time, the retirement business is evolving.

According to McKinsey & Company, retirement recordkeepers face pressure from declining administration fees, demographic shifts and increased competition.

Between 2013 and 2023, retail wealth revenues generated through the defined contribution system grew by $45 billion, exceeding growth from recordkeeping and investment products during the same period.

Digital investment continues

Retirement providers increased digital-experience updates by 87.3% in 2025, according to research from Corporate Insight.

The analysis tracked 397 changes across participant websites and platforms at 17 retirement providers. Retirement-planning tools, navigation improvements and cybersecurity capabilities accounted for many of the updates.

In separate research, Corporate Insight found retirement-plan participants frequently cited usability, navigation and website design among the areas they would most like providers to improve.

Participants also increasingly compare retirement websites and apps with the technology platforms they use every day.

Michael Foy, managing director of wealth intelligence at JD Power, said retirement providers are responding to those changing expectations.

“They’re recognizing that the participants in their plans have high expectations in terms of what they’re going to be able to do in an app,” Foy said.

He added that many participants increasingly expect mobile platforms to provide functionality similar to desktop experiences.

“The expectation is that anything you might want to do on your big screen you can do on your small screen,” he said.

Several major providers have expanded digital resources in recent years.

Empower offers retirement-readiness scores, retirement-income projections, budgeting tools and financial-wellness resources through its participant platform. The company also provides digital guidance, managed-account services and retirement-advice programs.

Vanguard has integrated digital-advice services, retirement-income planning tools and financial-planning resources into its workplace-retirement platform.

Fidelity Investments offers retirement-planning dashboards, retirement-income calculators and retirement-readiness tools that allow participants to model future retirement scenarios.

JD Power examines participant engagement

Mobile apps are playing a larger role in how participants manage retirement accounts, according to new research from JD Power.

Participants who reported the highest satisfaction with retirement-plan mobile apps were more likely to report rolling over assets from other retirement accounts and more likely to say they would keep assets with their provider after a future job change, according to JD Power’s 2026 U.S. Retirement Plan Digital Experience Study.

Participants who downloaded a retirement-plan mobile app were 79% more likely to report rolling over assets from another provider than participants who had not downloaded an app.

Foy said that finding is particularly important because participants often have little choice over which provider their employer selects, but they do have choices when it comes to assets held in former workplace plans.

“If I don’t like Vanguard, I’ve got no choice as an employee where my 401(k) is,” Foy said. “But I do have a choice about the assets that are sitting in prior plans. I do have a choice about what happens to those assets once I move on from J.D. Power.”

Among participants with the highest-rated app experiences, 50% reported rolling over money from other retirement accounts and 60% said they would leave assets with their provider following a future job change.

Nearly half said using their retirement account improved their perception of their employer.

That finding was among the results that surprised Foy most.

“Almost half of them said that that experience resulted in them having a much more positive impression of their employer,” he said.

Mobile apps also received significantly higher satisfaction scores than retirement-plan websites.

Apps scored 724 on JD Power’s 1,000-point scale, compared with 671 for websites. Participants cited faster performance, visual appeal and personalization among the factors contributing to higher app ratings.

Mobile-app adoption among retirement participants increased from 35% in 2021 to 47% in 2023, according to the firm’s earlier research.

The same research found participants with stronger digital experiences were more likely to consolidate retirement assets and more likely to say they would keep assets with the same provider after changing jobs.

Planning tools draw mixed reviews

Despite ongoing investment, retirement-planning tools remain an area where participants report lower satisfaction.

JD Power found predictive retirement-planning tools ranked lowest among measured website and app features, while security ranked highest.

Foy said part of the challenge is balancing sophisticated planning capabilities with ease of use.

“Some of it is just about awareness and engagement, and some of it is also about making something that’s user-friendly enough that somebody doesn’t need to spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use it,” he said.

The finding comes as providers continue investing in retirement-planning capabilities.

Corporate Insight reported that planning resources and retirement-readiness tools accounted for a significant share of digital enhancements made across retirement-provider platforms during 2025.

Recent research from JD Power, Corporate Insight, McKinsey & Company, LIMRA and Broadridge highlights continued investment in digital capabilities, growing rollover activity and increased attention on participant engagement across the retirement industry.

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