More employers offer retirement plans at lower costs.

According to a survey of organizations with 200 or more employees, 91% were offering retirement plans in 1995, up from 89% in 1994 and 78% in 1993, while their costs for the plans were 6.5% of payroll, down from 6.75% in 1994 and 1993.

For the survey Retirement Benefits in the 1990s, sponsored by KPMG Peat Marwick, human resources directors at 1,183 organizations answered questions about their employer's defined benefit, 401(k), 403(b), profit-sharing and other plans. CPAs may find the information useful in showing how competitive their clients, retirement plans are and in suggesting various plan aspects to consider when advising those clients.

Organizations with the highest percentage of respondents who reported offering some type of retirement benefit were in communications (100%) and manufacturing and state and local governments (each about 97%). Retail was the category with the lowest percentage (68%). The most frequently available single plan was the 401(k); 58% of respondents offered this. The next most commonly offered defined contribution plans were profit-sharing (21%) and 403(b) plans (19%). According to the report, more than 56% of respondents offered two or more different types of plans, in many cases a defined benefit plan and either a 401(k) plan, a profit-sharing plan or an employee stock ownership plan. Regardless of the type of plan they offered, 30% of plan sponsors cited frequent changes in pension plan law as a "very troublesome" aspect of their retirement plans.

The survey also found that more than 35% of employees eligible to contribute their own money to plans did not participate. The majority of the respondents (82%) believed that employees would need employer-provided benefits as well as personal savings and Social Security to live on.

Copies of the report are available from the firm for $135 by faxing a request to Jim Berryman at (201) 8078071.